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Clarence  King 
Memoirs 


The 
Helmet  of  Mambrino 


Published  for  the  King  Memorial  Committee  of 

ThciCentury  Association  by  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York  and  London 

1904 


-/-    /ci/(Jf 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CAUFOINA 
DAVIS 


COPYRGHT,   1904 
BY 

JAMES  D .  HAGUE 


Published  March,  1904 


GIFT 


Preface 

SHORTLY  after  the  death  of  the 
late  Clarence  King,  the  Board  of 
Management  of  the  Century  Asso- 
ciation appointed  a  Committee  to  ad- 
vise in  what  manner  the  Club  might 
most  fitly  take  due  note  of  the  demise 
of  their  distinguished  fellow-member. 

After  some  long  and  disappointing 
delays  it  was  at  last  determined  to 
recommend  the  publication  of  a  King 
Memorial  Book,  which  should  contain 
a  number  of  personal  memoirs,  con- 
tributed by  some  of  his  more  intimate 
friends  and  associates,  together  with 
a  reprint  of  King's  short  story  entitled 
"  The  Helmet  of  Mambrino,"  which 
was  first  published  in  the  Century 
Magazine,  in  May,  1886. 

These  efforts  have  resulted  in  the 
publication  of  the  volume  here  pre- 
sented, which  has  been  produced  under 


M870018 


iv  Preface 

the  direction  of  the  King  Memorial 
Committee,  consisting  of  Edward 
Gary,  John  LaFarge,  and  the  under- 
signed. 

The  thanks  of  the  Committee  are 
due  to  Mr.  A.  F.  Jaccaci  and  Mr.  R. 
Swain  Gifford  for  their  many  helpful 
suggestions  and  friendly  participation 
in  the  work. 

JAMES  D.  HAGUE, 

Chairman, 
Century  Club,  March  2,  1904. 


Contents 

The  Helmet  of  Mambrino 
Clarence  King 

PAGB 

I 

Don  Horacio       .... 
James  D,  Hague 

.        39 

Clarence  King   .... 
John  Hay 

.     117 

Meetings  with  King  . 

William  Dean  H dwells 

•     "^SS 

King 157 

Henry  Adams 

Clarence  King 187 

John  LaFarge 

King—"  The  Frolic  and  the  Gentle  "  .     199 

Edmund  Clarence  Stedman 

King  at  THE  Century        .        .        .211 
William  Crary  Brownell 

Century  Necrological  Note    .        .     227 
Edward  Cary 

King's  "  Mountaineering  "        .        .     237 
Edward  Cary 


Contents 

PAGE 

Clarence  King— Geologist       .        .     253 
Samuel  Franklin  Emmons 

Clarence  King's  School-days  .         .     295 
Daniel  C.  Oilman 

Biographical  Notice  .         .         .     303 

RossiTER  W.  Raymond 

Memorabilia 375 

James  D.  Hague 

Synoptic  Index.         ....     417 


Portraits 

PAGE 

Clarence  King    .        .  Frontispiece 

From  portrait  by  George  Howland 

King — In  La  Mancha  .         .         -37 

When  seeking  the  Helmet  of  Mambrino 

Horace  F.  Cutter      .        .        .         ,      41 

Don  Horacio 75 

King  in  John  Hay's  Library    .         ,121 
King  at  Age  of  27       .        .        .        .     137 

Photographed  at  Washington  about  1868-9 

King  in  a  Mountain  Camp         .        .     247 
King  in  the  Market  Place        .         -357 

Photographed  at  Sombrerete,  Mexico 

King — "  Crossing  the  Bar  "       .        .     415 


The   Helmet  of  Mambrino 
Clarence  King 


New  York,  January  lo,  1885. 

Horace  F.  Cutter,  Esqre. 

My  dear  friend, — Two  years  ago 
in  Paris  after  I  had  returned  from  a 
trip  in  Spain  I  wrote  you  a  very  long 
letter  and  had  it  covered  with  a  piece 
of  silk  taken  from  an  old  robe  of  the 
time  of  Cervantes.  I  put  this  letter 
together  with  an  ancient  barber's  ba- 
sin of  brass,  and  was  on  the  point 
of  sending  them  to  you.  But  at 
the  last  moment  what  I  had  written 
seemed  so  lacking  in  local  color,  so 
dull  and  uninteresting,  that  I  put  it 
one  side. 

Now  my  mother  has  read  it  and 
bids  me  forward  it  to  you.  I  must 
only  ask  you  to  be  gentle  with  its 
literary  shortcomings  and  to  be  care- 
ful that  it  does  not  by  any  misad- 
venture get  into  print. 
3 


The  Helmet  of  Mambrino 

Wishing  you  the  happiest  of  New 
Years  and  bidding  you  receive  after 
this  long  silence  the  renewed  ex- 
pression of  my  firm  friendship  for 
you,  I  am 

Faithfully  yours, 


ec/'*^, 


'aa^ec/^i^ 


i 


The  Helmet  of  Mambrino* 

"  How  can  I  be  mistaken,  thou  eternal  misbe- 
liever ?  "  cried  Don  Quixote;  "  dost  thou  not  see  that 
knight  that  comes  riding  up  directly  towards  us  upon 
a  dapple-gray  steed,  with  a  helmet  of  gold  on  his 
head  ?  " 

"  I  see  what  I  see,"  replied  Sancho,  "  and  the  devil 
of  anything  can  I  spy  but  a  fellow  on  such  another 
gray  ass  as  mine  is,  with  something  that  glitters  o'  top 
of  his  head." 

"I  tell  thee  that  is  Mambrino's  helmet,"  replied 
Don  Quixote. — Cervantes. 

DEAR  DON  HORACIO:  You 
cannot  have  forgotten  the 
morning  we  turned  our  backs  upon 
San  Francisco,  and  slowly  rambled 
seaward  through  winding  hollows  of 
park,  nor  how  the  mist  drooped  low 
as  if  to  hear  the  tones  of  fondness 
in  our  talk  of  Cervantes  and  the 
Don,  nor  how  the  approving  sun 
seemed  to  send  a  benediction  through 
the  riven  cloud-rack  overhead. 

*  By  courtesy  of  The  Century  Company. 
5 


The  Helmet  of  Mambrino 

It  was  after  we  had  passed  the 
westward  edge  of  that  thin  veneer 
of  poHte  vegetation  which  a  coquet- 
tish art  has  affixed  to  the  great  wind- 
made  waves  of  sand,  and  entered 
the  waste  of  naked  drift  beyond, 
that  we  heard  afar  a  whispered  sea- 
plaint,  and  beheld  the  great  Pacific 
coming  in  under  cover  of  a  low-lying 
fog,  and  grinding  its  white  teeth  on 
the  beach. 

Still  discoursing  of  La  Mancha,  we 
left  behind  us  the  last  gateway  of  the 
hills,  came  to  the  walk's  end  and  the 
world's  end  and  the  end  of  the  Aryan 
migrations. 

We  were  not  disturbed  by  the 
restless  Aryan  who  dashed  past  us 
at  the  rate  of  2:20  with  an  insolent 
flinging  of  sand,  a  whirling  cobweb 
of  hickory  wheel,  and  all  the  mad 
hurry  of  the  nineteenth  century  at 
his  heels. 

For  what  (we  asked  one  another 

6 


Clarence  King 

as  we  paced  the  Cliff- House  veranda) 
did  this  insatiable  wanderer  leave  his 
comfortable  land  of  Central  Asia  and 
urge  ever  westward  through  forty- 
centuries  of  toilsome  march?  He 
started  in  the  world's  youth  a  simple, 
pastoral  pilgrim,  and  we  saw  him  pull 
up  his  breathless  trotters  at  the  very 
Ultima  Thule,  rush  into  the  barroom, 
and  demand  a  cocktail. 

Having  quenched  this  ethnic  thirst 
and  apparently  satisfied  the  yearning 
of  ages,  we  watched  him  gather  up 
his  reins  and  start  eastward  again,  as 
if  for  the  sources  of  the  sacred 
Ganges,  and  disappear  in  the  cloud 
of  his  own  swift-rushing  dirt. 

By  the  fire  in  our  private  breakfast- 
room  we  soon  forgot  him,  and  you 
led  me  again  into  the  company  of  the 
good  knight. 

Even  Alphonso  must  have  felt  the 
chivalric  presence,  for  all  unbidden  he 
discreetly  hispanized  our  omelet. 


The  Helmet  of  Mambrino 

Years  have  gone  since  that  Cervan- 
tean  morning  of  ours,  and  to-day,  my 
friend,  I  am  come  from  our  dear 
Spain. 

As  I  journeyed  in  the  consecrated 
realm  of  Don  Quixote,  it  happened 
to  me  to  pass  a  night  "  down  in  a 
village  of  La  Mancha,  the  name  of 
which  I  have  no  desire  to  recollect." 

Late  in  the  evening,  after  a  long 
day  in  the  saddle,  we  had  stopped  at 
an  humble  posada  on  the  outskirts  of 
an  old  pueblo,  too  tired  to  press  on 
in  search  of  better  accommodations, 
which  we  believed  the  town  would 
probably  afford.  We  were  glad  enough 
to  tie  our  weary  animals  to  their  iron 
rings  within  the  posada,  and  fling 
ourselves  down  to  sleep  in  the  door- 
way, lulled  by  the  comfortable  munch- 
ing sound  of  the  beasts,  and  fanned 
by  a  soft  wind  which  came  fitfully 
from  the  south. 

The  mild,  dry  night,  wherein  thin 


Clarence  King 

veils  of  cloud  had  tempered  the  moon 
light  and  overspread  the  vacant  plains 
with  spectral  shadows,  was  at  length 
yielding  to  the  more  cheerful  advance 
of  dawn. 

From  the  oaken  bench  on  which  I 
had  slept,  in  the  arched  entrance  of 
the  posada,  I  could  look  back  across 
the  wan  swells  of  plain  over  which 
my  companion  and  I  had  plodded  the 
day  before,  and  watch  the  landscape 
brighten  cheerfully  as  the  sun  rose. 

Just  in  front,  overhanging  the  edge 
of  a  dry,  shallow  ravine,  stood  the 
ruin  of  a  lone  windmill  —  a  breach  in 
its  walls  rendering  visible  the  gnarled 
trunk  of  an  old  olive-tree,  which 
hugged  the  shade  of  the  ancient  mill, 
as  if  safe  under  the  protection  of  a 
veritable  giant. 

Oaken  frames  of  the  mill-arms, 
slowly  consuming  with  dry-rot,  etched 
their  broken  lines  against  the  soft 
gray  horizon.      A    rag    or    two    of 


The  Helmet  of  Mambrino 

stained  canvas,  all  that  was  left  of 
the  sails,  hung  yellow,  threadbare, 
and  moldering  in  the  windless  air. 

The  walls  of  our  doorway  seemed 
visibly  to  crumble.  Here  and  there 
lingering  portions  of  stucco  still  clung 
to  a  skeleton  of  bricks ;  and  over- 
head, by  the  friendly  aid  of  imagin- 
ation, one  could  see  that  time  out 
of  mind  the  arch  had  been  white- 
washed. 

Signs  of  life  one  by  one  appeared. 
From  a  fold  somewhere  behind  the 
posada  a  small  flock  of  gaunt,  lately 
sheared  sheep  slowly  marched  across 
my  narrow  field  of  view. 

Single  file,  with  heads  down,  they 
noiselessly  followed  a  path  faintly 
traced  across  the  plain,  the  level  sun 
touching  their  thin  backs,  and  casting 
a  procession  of  moving  shadows  on 
the  gray  ground.  One  or  two  stopped 
to  rub  against  the  foundation-stones 
of  the  mill ;    and   presently  all  had 

lO 


Clarence  King 

moved  on  into  a  hollow  of  the  empty 
land  and  disappeared. 

Later,  at  the  same  slow  pace,  and 
without  a  sound  of  footfall,  followed 
a  brown  and  spare  old  shepherd,  with 
white,  neglected  hair  falling  over  a 
tattered  cloak  of  coarse  homespun. 
His  face  wore  a  strange  expression 
of  imbecile  content.  It  was  a  face 
from  which  not  only  hope  but  even 
despair  had  faded  out  under  the 
burning  strength  of  eternal  monotony. 

A  few  short,  jerky,  tottering  steps, 
and  he  too  was  gone,  with  his  crust 
of  bread  and  cow's  horn  of  water,  his 
oleander-wood  staff,  and  his  vacant 
smile  of  senile  tranquillity. 

Then  an  old,  shriveled  parrot  of  a 
woman,  the  only  other  inhabitant  of 
the  posada,  came  from  I  never  knew 
where,  creeping  in  through  the  open 
portal,  heavily  burdened  with  an 
earthen  jar  of  water  for  our  beasts. 
'*  Buenos  dias  I "  fell  in  a  half-whisper 
II 


The  Helmet  of  Mambrino 

from  her  lips,  which  held  a  burning 
cigarette.     She  too  disappeared. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  arched 
entry,  against  the  opposite  wall,  on 
an  oaken  bench  like  mine,  his  head  to 
the  outer  air,  asleep  on  his  back,  lay 
my  guide  and  companion,  Salazar,  — 
a  poor  gentleman,  humbled  by  fate, 
yet  rich  in  the  qualities  of  sentiment 
which  make  good  men  and  good 
friends. 

His  arms  were  crossed  on  his  breast, 
after  the  manner  of  those  pious  per- 
sonages who  lie  in  their  long  bronze 
and  marble  slumber  in  church  and 
chapel.  His  delicate  constitution, 
yielding  at  last  to  the  wear  of  time, 
and  now  plainly  declining,  had  de- 
creed for  him  only  a  narrow  margin 
of  life.  In  a  little  while,  in  a  few 
short  years,  he  will  lie  as  he  lay  that 
morning  in  La  Mancha,  and  his 
countenance  will  wear  the  same  ex- 
pression of  mingled  pain  and  peace. 


Clarence  King 

I  had  chosen  him  as  companion  for 
this  episode  of  travel  because  of  his 
fine,  appreciative  knowledge  of  Cer- 
vantes, and  from  his  personal  resem- 
blance to  the  type  of  Don  Quixote. 
He  had  listened  affectionately  to  my 
talk  of  the  Bachelor  of  San  Fran- 
cisco, and  joined  with  zest  in  my 
search  for  a  *'  Helmet  of  Mambrino," 
which  I  hoped  to  send  as  a  gift  to 
the  gentleman  by  the  western  sea. 

I  scanned  his  sleeping  features  long 
and  thought  him  a  perfect  Spanish 
picture.  How  sternly  simple  the  ac- 
cessories !  Only  a  wall  of  time-mel- 
lowed brick,  barred  by  lines  of  yellow 
mortar,  and  patched  by  a  few  hand- 
breadths  of  whitened  plaster  !  Only 
a  solid,  antique  bench  of  oak,  weather- 
worn into  gray  harmony  with  an 
earthen  floor  !     Nothing  more  ! 

His  ample  cloak  of  dark,  olive-col- 
ored cloth,  reaching  from  foot  to  chin, 
covered  him,  save  for  one  exposed 
13 


The  Helmet  of  Mambrino 

hand,  completely,  and  hung  in  folds 
to  the  ground.  There  was  nothing 
to  distract  from  his  face,  now  thrown 
into  full  profile  against  the  rough 
wall. 

Far  back  over  the  bald  cranial  arch, 
a  thin  coat  of  mixed  gray  and  brown 
wiry  hair  covered  the  back  of  his 
head,  just  where  it  rested  on  the  blue 
handkerchief  he  had  carefully  com- 
posed over  an  improvised  pillow. 
The  heavy  eyebrow  formed  a  particu- 
larly long,  high  bow,  and  ended  ab- 
ruptly against  a  slightly  sunken  bony 
temple.  The  orbital  hollow,  an  un- 
usually large  and  cavernous  bowl, 
showed  beneath  the  brow  a  tracery 
of  feeble  blue  veins  ;  but  the  closed 
eye  domed  boldly  up,  its  yellow  lids 
strongly  fringed  with  long  brown 
lashes.  The  hooked  beak  of  a  well- 
modeled  but  large  aquiline  nose 
curved  down  from  the  brow.  Over 
his  always  compressed  mouth  grew  a 
14 


Clarence  King 

delicate,  grizzled  mustache,  the  ends 
of  which  turned  up  in  the  old  Span- 
ish way.  His  jaw  was  refined  rather 
than  strong,  and  bore  on  his  long 
chin  a  thin  tuft  of  hair,  which  grew 
to  a  point  and  completed  a  singularly 
chaste  and  knightly  profile.  The 
shallow  thinness  of  his  figure,  the 
sunken  yellow  cheek,  and  emaciated 
throat,  were  all  eloquent  of  decline. 

Age,  too,  recorded  itself  in  the  ex- 
posed hand,  —  not  so  much  in  its 
pallor  or  slenderness  of  finger,  as  in 
the  prominence  of  bony  framework, 
which  seemed  thrust  into  the  wrinkled 
muscular  covering  as  into  a  glove 
which  is  too  large  and  much  out- 
worn. 

These  are  but  material  details,  and 
only  interesting  as  the  seat  and  found- 
ation of  a  fixed  air  of  gentleman- 
liness,  which,  waking  or  sleeping, 
never   left   his   countenance. 

He  was,  as  he  slept,  the  figure  of 
15 


The  Helmet  of  Mambrino 

the  dead  Quixote, — a  gaunt  face  soft- 
ened by  a  patient  spirit,  an  iron  frame 
weakened  and  refined  by  lifelong  fru- 
gality, and  now  touched  by  the  wintry 
frosts  of  age ;  but,  above  all,  the 
sleeping  mask,  with  its  slightly  curled 
lip,  wore  an  aspect  of  chivalric  scorn 
of  all  things  mean  and  low.  I  watched 
the  early  light  creep  over  his  bald 
forehead,  and  tinge  the  sallow  cheek 
with  its  copper  warmth,  and  I  marked 
how  the  sharp  shadow  of  his  nose 
lay  like  a  finger  of  silence  across  his 
lips. 

There  lay  one  of  those  chance 
friends,  whom  to  meet  is  to  welcome 
from  the  heart,  and  from  whom  I  for 
one  never  part  without  perplexing 
wonder  whether  chance  or  fate  or 
Providence  will  so  throw  the  shuttle 
through  the  strange  pattern  of  life's 
fabric,  that  our  two  feeble  threads 
will  ever  again  touch  and  cross  and 
interweave. 

i6 


Clarence  King 

Chocolate  is  the  straw  at  which 
the  drowning  traveler  catches  in  the 
wide  ocean  of  Spanish  starvation.  Its 
spicy  aroma,  with  that  of  a  cigarette, 
announced  the  coming  of  the  old 
posadera. 

I  reluctantly  awakened  Salazar,  and 
we  began  the  day  by  each  pouring 
water  from  an  earthen  jar  for  the 
other  s  ablutions.  From  a  leathern 
wallet  my  companion  produced  a  few 
dry,  crumbled  little  cakes,  and  my 
ulster  pocket  yielded  up  a  bottle  of 
olives  I  had  brought  from  Seville. 
The  woman  squatted  by  us  and 
smoked. 

While  waiting  for  his  boiling  bev- 
erage to  cool,  Salazar  addressed  our 
hostess.  "  This  American  gentleman 
has  in  his  own  country  a  friend  of 
whom  he  is  exceedingly  fond,  a  certain 
Don  Horacio,  who,  it  seems,  is  in  the 
habit  of  reading  the  adventures  of 
Don  Quixote,  which  you  very  well 

a 

17 


The  Helmet  of  Mambrino 

know,  seftora,  happened  here  in  La 
Mancha.  This  Don  Horacio  has 
never  seen  one  of  our  Spanish  bar- 
bers' basins,  such  as  the  good  Don 
Quixote  wore  for  a  helmet. 

''  It  is  to  find  him  an  ancient  basin 
that  we  have  come  to  La  Mancha. 
There  were  plenty  of  new  ones  in 
Seville  and  Cordova,  but  they  will 
not  serve.  We  must  have  an  an- 
cient one,  and  one  from  this  very 
land.  Do  you  by  chance  remember 
where  there  is  such  an  one  ?  " 

The  good  woman  reflected,  while 
we  sipped  the  chocolate,  and  ate  the 
cakes  and  the  olives.  She  threw 
away  the  end  of  the  cigarette,  and 
began  rolling  another.  This  little 
piece  of  manipulation,  well  known  as 
provocative  of  thought,  was  hardly 
accomplished  when  she  exclaimed  : 

'*  Mira  !  I  do  know  the  very  piece. 
Come  to  the  door !  Do  you  see  that 
church  in  ruins?     Bueno I     Just  be- 

i8 


Clarence  King 

yond  is  an  old  posada.  The  widow 
Barrilera,  with  her  boy  Crisanto,  lives 
there.  Poor  people  put  up  their 
beasts  there.  It  used  to  be  a  great 
fonda  many  years  ago,  and  ever  since 
I  was  a  child  an  old  basin  has  hung 
in  the  patio.  It  ought  to  be  there 
now."  At  this  we  were  much  glad- 
dened ;  for  our  search  all  the  day  be- 
fore among  the  villages  and  hamlets 
had  been  fruitless.  The  posadera 
was  so  dumb  at  the  silver  we  gave 
her  that  she  forgot  to  bid  us  *'  Go 
with  God!"  till  we  were  mounted 
and  moving  away  from  her  door 
toward  the  pueblo. 

A  Spanish  town,  especially  in 
wide,  half -waste  regions  between 
great  cities,  sometimes  sinks  into  a 
slow  decline,  and  little  by  little  gives 
up  the  ghost  of  life  ;  dying,  not  of 
sudden  failure  in  the  heart  or  central 
plaza,  but  wasting  away  by  degrees 
around  its  outskirts,  and  shrinking 
19 


The  Helmet  of  Mambrino 

by  the  slow  ruin  of  block  after  block 
inward  toward  the  center  of  vitality. 
This  form  of  decay  comes  at  last  to 
girdle  the  whole  town  with  mounds 
of  fallen  wall,  vacant  squares  of  roof- 
less masonry,  fragments  of  paved 
patio,  secluded  no  more  by  inclosing 
corridors,  but  open  and  much  fre- 
quented of  drowsy  goats,  who  come 
from  their  feeding-grounds  to  sleep 
on  the  sun-heated  stones. 

Here  and  there  a  more  firmly 
founded  edifice,  like  a  church  or  a 
posada,  resists  the  unrelenting  prog- 
ress of  destruction,  and  stands  for  a 
few  years  in  lonely  despair  among 
the  leveled  dust  of  the  neighbor 
buildings. 

If  a  church,  it  is  bereft  of  its  im- 
memorial chimes,  which  are  made  to 
jangle  forth  the  Angelus  from  some 
better-preserved  tower  on  the  plaza. 
Owls  sail  through  the  open  door,  and 
brush  with  their  downy  wings  the 
20 


Clarence  King 

sacred  dust  from  wooden  image  of 
Virgin  or  Saviour  ;  till  at  last  the  old 
towers  and  walls,  yielding  to  rain  and 
wind,  melt  down  into  the  level  of 
humbler  ruin. 

The  old  posadas,  while  they  last, 
are  tenanted  by  the  poorest  of  the 
poor.  Childless  widows  too  old  to 
work  end  here  in  solitary  penury  their 
declining  days,  sister  tenants  with 
wandering  bats  and  homeless  kids. 

Past  such  an  old  and  dying  church 
Salazar  and  I  rode,  following  the  di- 
rections of  our  hostess  and  soon 
drew  rein  before  an  old  oaken  gate  in 
a  high  wall  of  ancient  masonry.  Upon 
the  lintel  was  rudely  cut,  as  with  a 
pocket-knife,  the  sign  '' Forraje'' 
Half  the  double  gate,  fallen  from  its 
rusty  hinges,  lay  broken  and  disused 
on  the  ground,  its  place  taken  by  a 
ragged  curtain  of  woolen  cloth, 
which  might  once  have  been  a  wo- 
man's cloak.    This,  with  the  half  gate 

2\ 


The  Helmet  of  Mambrino 

still  standing,  served  to  suggest  that 
the  ruinous  inclosure  was  to  be  re- 
spected as  private  ground. 

My  grave  companion  alighted  from 
his  horse,  folded  his  cloak,  which  till 
now  he  had  worn  against  the  morn- 
ing cold,  laid  it  carefully  across  his 
saddle,  and  knocked  very  gently ; 
then  after  a  pause,  as  if  to  give 
misery  a  time  to  compose  its  rags, 
he  drew  aside  the  curtain  an  inch  or 
so,  and  after  peering  around  the  in- 
closed yard,  turned  to  me  with  a 
mysterious  smile,  laid  his  finger  on 
his  lips,  and  beckoned  to  me  to  look 
where  he  pointed. 

I  saw  a  large,  square,  walled  in- 
closure bounded  on  the  right  by  a 
one-story  house,  with  a  waving,  sag- 
ging, collapsing  roof  of  red  tiles.  The 
left  or  eastern  wall,  which  rose  to  a 
height  of  twenty  feet  or  so,  was 
pierced  by  two  doorways  and  sev- 
eral second -story  window  -  openings. 

22 


Clarence  King 

Through  these  we  looked  out  upon 
the  open  plain,  for  the  apartments 
into  which  the  doorways  had  once  led 
were  ruined  and  gone. 

Over  the  eastern  door  was  traced 
the  half-faded  word  ''Comedor"  and 
over  the  other  "  Barberza."  Still 
above  this  latter  sign  there  projected 
from  the  solid  masonry  an  orna- 
mental arm  of  wrought  iron,  from 
which  hung  a  barber's  basin  of  bat- 
tered and  time-stained  brass,  the 
morning  light  just  touching  its  disc 
of  green. 

Salazar  knocked  a  little  louder, 
when  a  cheery,  welcoming  woman's 
voice  called  out,  "  Pasen,  senores  !  " 
We  held  aside  the  woolen  curtain, 
crossed  the  inclosure,  and  entered  a 
little  door  directly  opposite  the  old 
barberia,  scenting  as  we  entered  a 
rich,  vigorous  odor  of  onion  and 
garlic. 

There  are  nerves  so  degenerate, 
23 


The  Helmet  of  Mambrino 

there  are  natures  so  enfeebled,  as  to 
fall  short  of  appreciating,  as  even  to 
recoil  from,  the  perfume  of  these 
sturdy  esculents ;  but  such  are  not 
worthy  to  follow  the  footsteps  of 
Don  Quixote  in  La  Mancha,  where 
still,  as  of  old,  the  breath  of  the  cav- 
alier is  the  savor  of  onions,  and  the 
very  kiss  of  passion  burns  with  the 
mingled  fire  of  love  and  garlic. 

From  a  dilapidated  brick  floor 
rose  the  widow  Barrilera,  a  hand- 
some, bronzed  woman  of  fifty,  with 
a  low,  broad  brow,  genial,  round  face, 
and  stout  figure ;  who  advanced  to 
meet  us,  and  rolled  out  in  her  soft 
Andalusian  dialect  a  hearty  welcome, 
smiling  ardently  out  of  sheer  good- 
nature, and  showing  her  faultless 
teeth. 

It  did  not  seem  to  have  occurred 
to  her  to  ask,  or  even  consider,  why 
we  had  come.  Our  entrance  at  this 
early   hour   created  no   surprise,  no 

24 


Clarence  King 

questioning,  not  even  a  glance  of  cu- 
riosity. It  was  enough  for  her  socia- 
ble, affluent  good-nature  that  we  had 
come  at  all.  She  received  us  as  a 
godsend,  and  plainly  proposed  to  en- 
joy us,  without  bothering  her  amia- 
ble old  brains  about  such  remote, 
intricate  conceptions  as  a  cause  for 
our  coming. 

To  one  of  us  she  offered  a  stool, 
to  the  other  a  square  of  sheepskin, 
and  urged  us  to  huddle  down  with 
her  in  the  very  focus  of  the  garlic 
pot,  which  purred  and  simmered 
and  steamed  over  a  little  fire.  She 
remarked  in  the  gayest  way  that  it 
was  still  cool  of  a  morning,  and 
laughed  merrily  when  we  assented  to 
this  meteorological  truth,  adding  that 
a  little  fire  made  it  all  right,  and 
then  beaming  on  in  silence,  while  she 
stirred  the  savory  contents  of  the 
pot,  never  varying  the  open  breadth 
of  her  smile,  till  she  pursed  up  her 
25 


The  Helmet  of  Mambrino 

lips  as  if  about  to  whistle,  and  blew 
on  a  ladle  full  of  soup  till  it  was 
cool,  when  she  swallowed  it  slowly, 
her  soft  eyes  rolling  with  delight  at 
the  flavorous  compound. 

**  Sefiora,"  said  my  hollow-eyed 
and  hollow -voiced  comrade,  ''the 
gentleman  is  a  lover  of  good  Don 
Quixote." 

The  woman  flashed  on  me  a  look 
of  curiosity,  as  who  should  say,  *'  So 
is  every  one.     What  of  that  ?  " 

*'  My  friend  is  Americano^'  con- 
tinued Salazar. 

"  Valgame  Diosf"  ejaculated  the 
now  thoroughly  interested  widow. 
**  All  the  way  from  Buenos  Ayres  ! 
No  ?  Then  from  Cuba,  of  course  ! 
Yes,  yes  !  My  father's  cousin  was  a 
soldier  there,  and  married  a  woman 
as  black  as  a  pot." 

'*  No,  senora,  my  friend  is  from 
another  part  of  America ;  and  he 
has  come  here  to  buy  from  you  the 
26 


Clarence  King 

old  brass  basin  above  the  barberia 
door. 

Curiosity  about  America  suddenly 
gave  way  to  compassion. 

'^  Pobrecito  I ''  she  said  in  benevo- 
lent accents.  "  You  take  care  of 
him  !  He  is  " — making  a  grimace  of 
interrogation,  arching  up  her  brows, 
and  touching  her  head  —  "a  little 
wrong  here." 

Salazar,  with  unbroken  gravity, 
touched  his  own  head,  pointed  to 
me,  and  replied,  **  Perfectly  clear  ! " 

"  What  in  the  name  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  does  he  want  of  that  old  basin 
with  a  hole  in  it  ?  "  shrugging  her  fat, 
round  shoulders  till  they  touched  her 
earrings,  and  turning  up  the  plump, 
cushiony  palms  of  her  hands  to 
heaven. 

"It  seems  very  droll,  my  good 
woman,  does  it  not  ?  "  I  interrupted, 
**  but  I  have  in  my  own  country  a 
charming  friend  whom   I  love   very 

27 


The  Helmet  of  Mambrino 

much.  He  is  called  the  Bachelor  of 
San  Francisco,  and  he  has  never  seen 
a  Spanish  barber's  basin,  so  I  want  to 
carry  this  as  a  gift  to  him.  We  have 
no  barbers'  basins  in  America." 

*'  Caramba  !  "  she  exclaimed,  **  what 
a  land  !  Full  of  women  as  black  as 
coals,  and  no  barbers  !  My  father's 
cousin  had  a  beard  like  an  English- 
man when  he  came  back,  and  his  wife 
looked  like  a  black  sheep  just  sheared. 
As  to  the  basin,  seftor,  it  is  yours." 

Then  turning  to  a  hitherto  un- 
noticed roll  of  rags  in  a  dark  corner, 
she  gave  an  affectionate  shove  with 
her  foot,  which  called  forth  a  yawn- 
ing, smiling  lad,  who  respectfully 
bowed  to  us,  while  yet  half  asleep. 

**  Crisanto,  get  down  the  old  bar- 
ber's basin  from  the  patio,  and  bring 
it  here  ! " 

In  a  moment  the  boy  returned 
with  the  old  relic,  but  seemed  to 
hesitate  before  relinquishing  it  to  his 

28 


Clarence  King 

mother,  who  extended  her  hand  to 
receive  it. 

**  What  are  you  waiting  for,  child  ?" 
said  the  woman. 

''  It  is  mine.  You  gave  it  to  me," 
said  the  boy  bashfully. 

"  My  lad,"  said  Salazar,  ''we  shall 
give  you  two  silver  duros  for  it." 

The  boy  at  once  brightened  and 
consented.  His  mother  seized  the 
basin  in  one  hand,  a  wet  rag  in  the 
other,  and  with  her  toe  scraped  out 
some  ashes  from  the  fire,  and  was 
about  to  fall  upon  it  with  housewifely 
fury,  and  In  a  trice,  had  I  not  stopped 
her,  would  have  scraped  away  the 
mellow  green  film,  the  very  writing 
and  sign-manual  of  the  artist  Time. 

A  few  silver  duros  In  the  smiling 
lad's  palm,  a  bit  of  gold  to  the  mother, 
a  shudder  of  long  unknown  joy  in  the 
widow  s  heart,  a  tear,  a  quiver  of  the 
lip,  then  a  smile, — and  the  bargain 
was  made. 

29 


The  Helmet  of  Mambrino 

I  was  grasping  her  hand  and  she, 
saying  **  Adios  !  ",  was  asking  the  Vir- 
gin to  give  me  '*a  thousand  years," 
when  Salazar  said : 

"No,  no!  it  is  not  yet  'Adios!' 
This  basin  and  bargain  must  be  cer- 
tified to  by  the  ayuntamiento  in  a 
document  stamped  with  the  seal  of 
the  pueblo,  and  setting  forth  that 
here  in  La  Mancha  itself  was  bought 
this  barber's  basin." 

"  Seguro ! "  replied  the  woman, 
who  flung  over  her  head  a  tattered 
black  shawl,  tossing  the  end  over 
her  left  shoulder.  We  all  walked, 
Salazar  and  I  leading  our  beasts,  to 
the  door  of  the  alcalderia. 

The  group  of  loungers  who  sat 
around  the  whitewashed  wall  of  the 
chamber  of  the  ayuntamiento  showed 
no  interest  in  our  arrival.  To  our 
story  the  secretary  himself  listened 
with  official  indifference,  sipped  his 
morning  coffee,  only  occasionally 
30 


Clarence  King 

asking  a  question  of  idle  curiosity,  or 
offering  objection  to  the  execution  of 
so  trivial  a  document. 

*'  Ridiculous  !  "  he  exclaimed ;  *'  the 
authorities  of  Spain  have  not  pro- 
vided in  the  Codex  for  such  jesting. 
What  is  this  all  for?" 

•'  Sefior  Secretario,"  I  replied,  '*  I 
have  conceived  this  innocent  little 
caprice  of  legalizing  my  purchase  of 
the  basin,  to  gratify  a  certain  Don 
Horacio,  known  in  America  as  the 
Bachelor  of  San  Francisco,  a  gentle- 
man whose  fine  literary  taste  has  led 
him  to  yenerate  your  great  Cer- 
vantes, and  whose  knightly  senti- 
ments have  made  him  the  intimate 
friend  of  Don  Quixote." 

**  But,"  said  the  secretary,  **  no  con- 
tract of  sale  with  a  minor  for  vendor 
can  be  legalized  by  me.     The  Codex 

provides "     He  was  going  on  to 

explain  what  the  Codex  did  provide, 

when  Salazar,  who  knew  more  about 

31 


The  Helmet  of  Mambrino 

the  legal  practice  of  provincial  Spain 
than  the  Codex  itself,  stepped  for- 
ward, passed  behind  the  august 
judicial  table,  and  made  some  com- 
munication in  a  whisper,  which  was 
not  quite  loud  enough  to  drown  a  cu- 
rious metallic  clink,  as  of  coins  in 
collision. 

Thus  softened,  the  cold  eye  of  the 
secretary  warmed  perceptibly,  and  he 
resumed  :  "  As  I  was  about  to  say 
when  my  friend  here  offered  me  a — 
a — cigarette,  the  Codex  does  not  in 
terms  recognize  the  right  of  an  infant 
to  vend,  transfer,  give  over,  or  re- 
linquish real  or  personal  property  ; 
but  on  reflection,  in  a  case  like  this, 
I  shall  not  hesitate  to  celebrate  the 
act  of  sale." 

A  servant  was  dispatched  for  some 
strong  paper,  and  the  softened  magis- 
trate fell  into  general  conversation. 

"  You  have  had  a  great  war  in  your 
country." 

32 


Clarence  King 

**  Yes,"  I  replied,  '*  very  destructive, 
very  exhausting ;  but,  thank  God, 
North  and  South  are  now  beginning 
to  be  friends  again." 

"  Are  you  of  the  North  or  of  the 
South?" 

''  The  North." 

*'  Do  you  not  find  it  very  trying  to 
have  those  Chilians  in  your  Lima, 
senor  ? " 

Weeks  before  this  I  had  given  up 
trying  to  stretch  the  Spanish  concep- 
tion of  America  to  include  a  country 
north  of  Mexico,  for  the  land  of  Cor- 
tes is  the  limit  of  imagination  in  that 
direction ;  so  I  helplessly  assented. 
Yes,  it  was  trying. 

The  boy  returned  with  the  paper  ; 
ink-horns  and  pens  were  successfully 
searched  for,  and  the  document  was 
executed  and  sealed. 

Salazar  and  I  withdrew  after  salut- 
ing the  upright  official,  mounted  our 
beasts,  received  the  soft  benediction 

33 


The  Helmet  of  Mambrino 

of  the  smiHng  widow,  and  pricked  for- 
ward down  a  narrow  way  which  led 
to  the  open  plain.  We  were  descend- 
ing a  gentle  slope  on  the  outskirts  of 
the  pueblo  when  we  were  overtaken 
by  the  secretary's  servant,  who  charged 
down  upon  us,  his  donkey  nearly  up- 
setting mine  in  the  collision. 

Like  a  wizard  in  a  show,  he  drew 
from  under  his  jacket  an  incredibly 
bright  and  brand-new  barber's  basin. 

**  The  secretary,"  he  said,  '*  remem- 
bered, just  after  you  had  gone,  that 
the  old  Duchess  of  Molino  had  de- 
posited with  him,  as  security  for  a 
large  loan,  this  basin,  which  is  proved 
to  have  been  the  authentic  and  only 
one  from  which  Cervantes  was  shaved 
every  day  while  prisoner  at  Argamo- 
sillo.  The  secretary  knew  that  you 
would  like  to  see  this  valued  relic, 
and  to  touch  it  with  your  own  hand. 
The  duchess,  senor  (lowering  his  eyes 
and  face),  is  in  gloria.     For  ten  duros 

34 


Clarence  King 

you  can  have  this  undoubted  me- 
mento ;  and  full  documents  shall  fol- 
low you  to  Madrid  or  Lima  by  the 
next  mail." 

''Hombre/"  I  replied,  "do  me  the 
favor  to  present  to  the  secretary  my 
most  respectful  compliments,  and  say 
that  the  supposed  death  of  the  duchess 
is  a  curious  mistake.  The  old  lady 
is  Hving  in  great  luxury  in  Seville, 
and  her  steward  is  already  on  the 
way  to  redeem  her  favorite  relic." 

The  man,  who  saw  the  force  of  my 
pleasantry,  laughed  explosively,  and 
shamelessly  offered  me  the  basin  at 
two  duros  and  a  half.  We  shook  our 
heads,  and  rode  away.  Having  gone 
a  hundred  yards,  we  heard  a  voice, 
and  looking  back  beheld  the  servant, 
who  brandished  aloft  the  basin  and 
shouted  :  **  One  duro  ?  "  I  answered 
"  Never,"  and  we  rode  out  upon  the 
brown  and  sunburnt  plain. 

Some  sheep  lay  dozing,  huddled  in 

35 


The  Helmet  of  Mambrino 

the  shadow  of  a  few  stunted  cork- 
trees. Brown  and  dim  as  if  clad  in 
dusty  leather,  the  Sierra  Morena  lay 
sleeping  in  the  warm  light.  Away 
up  among  the  hazy  summits  were 
pencilings  of  soft,  cool  color ;  but  we 
were  too  far  away  to  discern  the  rocks 
and  groves  where  Don  Quixote  did 
his  amorous  penance. 

After  riding  long  and  silently,  Sal- 
azar  addressed  me  : 

*'  Senor,  this  friend  of  yours,  this 
Don  Horacio,  will  he  ever  come  to 
La  Mancha  ?  " 

''Quien  sabef'  I  replied;  ''but  if 
he  comes  you  will  certainly  know  him 
and  love  him  as  he  is  known  and  loved 
by  his  friend." 

To  the  Bachelor  of  San  Francisco.        K. 


36 


In  La  Mancha 

King's  diess  in  the  above  picture  is  said  to  be  the  same  he  wore  in  Spain  when 
seeking  the  I  lehnet  of  Mambrino. 


Don    Horacio 

James  D.  Hague 


39 


j,  l/OuAtiC 


Don  Horacio 

DON  HORACIO"  was  a  fa- 
vorite name  of  the  Quixotic 
friend  for  love  of  whom  King  sought 
the  precious  **  Helmet  of  Mambrino," 
in  the  province  of  La  Mancha,  and 
to  whom  he  addressed  the  delightful 
epistle  which  accompanied  his  gift 
of  the  barber's  basin  he  found  there. 
To  certain  fellow-lovers  of  roman- 
tic literature  Don  Horacio  was  also 
known  as  '*  The  Bachelor  of  San 
Francisco."  To  everyday  and  com- 
monplace acquaintance  his  matter- 
of-fact  name  was  Horace  F.  Cutter. 
He  was  born  in  Boston  more  than 
eighty  years  ago.*  In  his  boyhood 
he  was  a  pupil  at  the  Boston  Latin 
school  and,  as  he  always  remembered 

*  July  4,  182 1. 
43 


Don  Horacio 

with  pride,  a  contemporary  scholar 
and  youthful  companion  of  his  life- 
long friend  Edward  Everett  Hale. 

When  he  grew  to  manhood  he 
drifted  westward  and,  after  a  brief 
stay  in  St.  Louis,  landed,  not  far  be- 
hind the  earliest  gold-seeking  pio- 
neers, in  California,  where,  in  the 
city  of  San  Francisco,  he  lived  fifty 
years  and  lately  died.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  his  career  there  he  ac- 
tively engaged  with  a  business  partner 
in  commercial  affairs,  so-called,  con- 
sisting mainly  in  very  speculative 
ventures  in  the  merchandise  market, 
such,  for  example,  as  "  corners "  in 
whiskey,  tobacco,  turpentine,  oatmeal 
or  macaroni,  or  in  any  of  the  many 
contemporary  equivalents  of  Colonel 
Sellers's  eyewater,  all  of  which,  with 
occasional  success  and  ultimate  fail- 
ure, seem  to  have  left  him,  at  last, 
rich  only  in  pleasing  illusions  of 
prospective   fortune,    the    memories 

44 


James  D.  Hague 

of  which,  long  after,  cheered  his  old 
age.  He  rose  superior  to  the  petty 
embarrassments  of  unsuccessful  busi- 
ness, and  never  allowed  the  failures 
of  the  past  to  overshadow  the  bright 
prospects  of  the  future.  His  daily 
business  occupation,  during  many 
years  following  the  collapse  of  his 
firm,  was  in  the  office  of  lifelong 
friends,*  owners  of  a  large  landed 
estate,  where,  in  some  clerical  capa- 
city, he  earned,  or  at  least  received, 
money  enough  to  secure  his  com- 
fortable support.  He  lodged  in  a 
bare  and  scantily  furnished  upper 
room  of  the  office  building  and  spent 
his  leisure  hours  at  his  club,  where 
he  was  a  cherished  companion  and  a 
familiar  figure  in  his  accustomed  seats 
in  the  library  or  dining  room,  during 
nearly  forty  years.  A  most  welcome 
visitor  in  half  a  dozen  houses  where 

*  The    Howard    family,    of     San     Mateo 
County. 

45 


Don  Horacio 

he  was  an  expected  guest  for  dinner 
once  or  twice  a  week,  he  enjoyed 
the  best  of  everything  that  devoted 
friends  could  offer,  and  lived  with- 
out anxiety  concerning  his  personal 
welfare,  giving  himself  wholly  to  his 
favorite  pursuits. 

He  was  an  insatiable  reader  of 
many  sorts  of  books,  old  and  new, 
with  a  wide  range  of  current  litera- 
ture, and,  while  most  at  home  in  the 
atmosphere  of  romance,  he  seemed 
to  know  something  of  everything 
going  on  in  the  universe  generally, 
visible  and  invisible,  anywhere  within 
the  far-reaching  domain  of  psychi- 
cal research  or  of  Swedenborgian 
philosophy,  which  was  his  favorite  re- 
ligion. The  revelations  of  the  tele- 
scope in  astronomical  research,  the 
transactions  of  the  Microscopical  So- 
ciety, geographical — especially  polar 
— exploration,  serial  navigation,  the 
practical  applications  of  electricity  to 
46 


James  D.  Hague 

modern  inventions,  the  Keeley  Mo- 
tor, the  extraction  of  precious  metals 
from  the  ocean,  everything  in  heaven, 
or  in  the  air  —  from  flying  machines 
to  humming-birds  and  butterflies  — 
or  in  the  earth,  whether  the  product 
of  the  soil  or  of  the  mine,  or  in  the 
waters  under  the  earth,  including  the 
sea-serpent,  in  the  existence  of  which 
he  died  a  firm  believer,  together  with 
the  social  and  political  conditions  of 
people  everywhere,  the  foreign  wars 
and  revolutions,  the  international  re- 
lations of  the  world  at  large,  bi-met- 
allism,  the  demonetization  of  silver 
and,  especially,  the  Bank  of  England 
rate,  engaged  his  daily  attention  and 
constant  solicitude. 

Cutter  was  a  phenomenal  Ameri- 
can, a  composite,  in  characteristic 
qualities,    of    Confucius,*    Socrates, 

*  A  noteworthy  likeness  in  the  occupations 
of  their  younger  days  appears  in  the  histori- 
cal coincidence  that  Confucius  "  in  his  youth 
47 


Don  Horacio 

Swedenborg,  Don  Quixote,  Mr.  Mi- 
cawber  and  Colonel  Sellers. 

He  delighted  in  schemes,  projects 
and  enterprises  of  every  sort,  finan- 
cial, industrial,  scientific,  romantic  and 
sentimental,  and  was  never  without 
something  in  hand  for  promotion. 
Many  of  his  undertakings  were  short- 
lived and  quickly  came  to  grief  ;  but 
his  hopeful  spirit  never  knew  the 
pang  of  failure,  and  none  of  his  most 
visionary  projects  ever  wholly  van- 
ished before  he  had  conceived  some 
new  and  better  thing.  If  an  unwill- 
ing capitalist  positively  and,  perhaps, 
rudely  refused  to  engage  in  some 
proposed  enterprise  today.  Cutter  al- 
ways knew  a  much  richer  and  every- 

was  successively  keeper  of  stores  and  super- 
intendent of  parks  and  herds  to  the  chief  of 
the  district  in  which  he  lived,"  while  Cutter 
was  also  a  storekeeper  in  early  life  and  subse- 
quently a  self-appointed,  unofficial  guardian 
of  the  animals  and  birds  in  Golden  Gate 
Park. 

48 


James  D.  Hague 

way  better  man  to  whom,  confident 
of  success,  he  would  unfold  his  pro- 
ject tomorrow. 

His  favorite  enterprises  were  world- 
wide in  their  range,  sometimes  involv- 
ing important  international  relations. 
One  of  his  proudest  achievements 
he  accomplished  nearly  twenty-five 
years  ago,  having  been  deeply  moved 
thereto  by  reading,  at  his  club  in 
San  Francisco,  in  a  current  number 
of  the  London  T^'^/^^j-,*  a  stirring  letter 
from  that  paper's  correspondent  at 
Peking,  reporting  recent  events  in 
China  and  relating  a  most  pathetic 
story  of  the  wretched  fate  of  certain 
youthful  captives,  the  children  of  Ya- 
koob  Beg,  a  famous  chieftain  and 
ruler  of  Eastern  Turkistan,  Amir  of 
Kashgar,  who,  in  1877,  was  defeated 
in  war  with  China  and  ignominiously 
put  to  death,  and  whose  three  young 
sons,  with  one  little  grandson,  all 
*  London  Weekly  Times^  September  19, 1879. 
49 


Don  Horacio 

innocent  victims  of  their  father's 
misfortune,  had  been  condemned  to 
imprisonment,  with  abominable  mal- 
treatment and,  upon  reaching  the  age 
of  eleven  years,  to  be  given  over  as 
slaves  to  the  soldiery  in  Turkistan  or 
in  the  Amoor  region.* 

* .  .  .  "In  consequence  of  the  rebel- 
lious attitude  of  the  Mussulmans  of  Kashgar, 
and  their  openly  expressed  regrets  at  the  loss 
of  their  beloved  Yakoob  Beg,  the  Chinese 
authorities  ordered  the  bodies  of  Yakoob 
Beg  and  of  his  son,  Ishana  Beg,  to  be  disin- 
terred and  publicly  burned  to  cinders.  The 
ashes  of  Yakoob  Beg  were,  moreover,  sent  to 
Peking.     .     .     . 

"  At  the  time  that  Eastern  Turkistan  again 
passed  into  the  hands  of  China,  there  were 
taken  prisoners  four  sons,  two  grandsons,  two 
granddaughters,  and  four  wives  of  Yakoob 
Beg.  Some  of  these  were  executed  and 
others  died;  but  in  1879  there  remained  in 
prison  in  Lanchanfoo,  the  capital  of  Kan- 
suh,  Maiti  Kuli,  aged  fourteen;  Yima  Kuli, 
aged  ten;  K'ati  Kuli,  aged  six;  sons  of  Ya- 
koob Beg;  and  Aisan  Ahung,  aged  five,  his 
grandson.  These  wretched  little  boys  were 
50 


James  D.  Hague 

When  Mr.  Cutter  read  with 
unspeakable  indignation  of  these 
distressful  events  he  immediately 
resolved  to  devote  all  his  energies 
and  resources  to  the  rescue   of  the 

treated  like  state  criminals.  They  arrived  in 
Kan-suh  in  February,  1879,  and  were  sent  on 
to  the  provincial  capital  to  be  tried  and  sen- 
tenced by  the  Judicial  Commissioner  there 
for  the  awful  crime  of  being  sons  of  their 
father.  In  the  course  of  time  the  Commis- 
sioner made  a  report  of  the  trial  which  he 
concluded  as  follows: 

"  *  In  cases  of  sedition,  where  the  law  con- 
demns the  malefactors  to  death  by  the  slow 
and  painful  process,  the  children  and  grand- 
children, if  it  be  shown  that  they  were  not 
privy  to  the  treasonable  designs  of  their  par- 
ents, shall  be  delivered,  no  matter  whether 
they  have  attained  full  age  or  not,  into  the 
hands  of  the  imperial  household  to  be  made 
eunuchs  of,  and  shall  be  forwarded  to  Turkis- 
tan  and  given  over  as  slaves  to  the  soldiery. 
If  under  the  age  of  ten,  they  shall  be  con- 
fined in  prison  until  they  have  reached  the 
age  of  eleven,  whereupon  they  shall  be  handed 
over  to  the  imperial  household,  to  be  dealt 
51 


Don  Horacio 

innocent  sufferers,  in  whose  behalf  he 
promptly  took  the  first  initiative  steps 
to  engage  public  attention  and  sym- 
pathy in  this  country,*  which,  through 

with  according  to  law.  In  the  present  case, 
.  .  as  Yakoob  Beg's  sons  .  .  .  are 
rebels  from  Turkistan,  it  is  requested  that 
they  may,  instead,  be  sent  to  the  Amoor 
region,  to  be  given  as  slaves  to  the  soldiery 
there. 

"  *  As  Maiti  Kuli  is  fourteen,  it  is  requested 
that  he  may  be  delivered  over  to  the  imperial 
household  as  soon  as  the  reply  of  the  Board 
is  received.  Yima  Kuli  is  just  ten;  K'ati 
Kuli  and  Aisan  Ahung  are  under  ten;  they 
have  therefore,  to  be  confined  in  prison  until 
they  attain  the  age  of  eleven,  when  they  will 
be  delivered  over  to  the  imperial  household 
to  be  dealt  with  according  to  law.'  "  (Apple- 
ton's  Annual  Cyclopcedia^  New  Series,  Vol. 
iv.,  1879,  page  145.) 

*  One  of  Mr.  Cutter's  first  efforts  was  an 
appeal  to  the  New  York  Society  for  the  Pre- 
vention of  Cruelty  to  Children,  whose  presi- 
dent, Mr.  Elbridge  T.  Gerry,  addressed  and 
published  an  urgent  letter  on  the  subject  to 
the  President  of  the  United  States. 
52 


James  D.  Hague 

his  persistent  and  untiring  efforts, 
ultimately  led  to  Congressional  ac- 
tion, resulting  in  the  successful  in- 
tercession by  the  United  States, 
in  concert,  it  is  said,  with  England, 
France  and,  perhaps,  other  Govern- 
ments of  Europe,  for  the  justification 
and  liberation  of  the  unfortunate  chil- 
dren, with  suitable  provision  by  the 
Chinese  Government  for  their  subse- 
quent welfare. 

More  than  thirty  years  ago  Cutter 
sent  as  a  gift  to  His  Imperial  Majesty 
the  Tenno  of  Japan,  a  beautifully 
bound  copy  of  a  book  entitled  *'  The 
Tales  of  Old  Japan  "  (Mitford's),  the 
first  of  its  kind  published  in  the  Eng- 
lish language.  In  due  time  he  re- 
ceived through  His  Majesty's  consul 
for  California  a  highly  appreciative 
letter,  written  by  instruction  of  the 
Japanese  minister  for  foreign  affairs, 
expressing  his  majesty's  pleasure  and 
thanks,  together  with  an  accompany- 

53 


Don  Horacio 

ing  case  of  royal  gold-lacquered  ware, 
**  sent  to  Mr.  Cutter  as  a  token  of  re- 
quital for  his  kindness."  In  his  let- 
ter of  transmittal  accompanying  the 
book,  Mr.  Cutter  had  expressed  a 
wish  to  obtain  his  majesty's  photo- 
graph, referring  to  which  he  was  ad- 
vised, in  reply,  that  *'  As  to  the  desire 
of  Mr.  Cutter  to  possess  H.  I.  M.'s 
photographic  likeness,  we  regret  to 
express  that  as  no  photographic  like- 
ness of  His  Majesty  is  as  yet  taken, 
it  is  unable  to  fulfill  the  desire." 

Japan  again  received  the  personal 
attention  of  Mr.  Cutter,  about  fifteen 
years  ago,  when  he  strove  persist- 
ently, as  no  one  else  would  have 
done,  and  finally  succeeded  in  obtain- 
ing from  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment, in  the  interest  of  humanity, 
due  recognition  of  the  great  kindness 
shown  by  certain  native  villagers  and 
fishermen,  on  the  Japanese  island  of 
Tanegashima,  to  a  company  of  ship- 

54 


James  D.  Hague 

wrecked  American  seamen  who,  in  ex- 
treme distress,  narrowly  escaping  fatal 
disaster,  landed  on  their  shore.  Mr. 
Cutter  labored  long  and  assiduously 
with  senators  and  representatives  until 
Congress  passed  appropriate  resolu- 
tions, acknowledging  and  duly  appre- 
ciating the  kind  deed  and  benevolence 
of  the  Japanese  villagers.  Gold 
medals  were  sent  to  the  principal  res- 
cuers ;  and  the  sum  of  $5000  was 
transmitted  to  the  Japanese  Govern- 
ment to  be  used  as  might  be  deemed 
most  advisable  for  the  benefit  of  the 
two  villages,  Anjio  and  Isaki.  This 
money  was  invested  for  the  support 
of  the  schools  in  these  two  villages, 
in  each  of  which  a  memorial  school- 
house  was  built  by  the  Japanese.  A 
stone  monument  was  erected,  also  by 
the  Japanese,  in  the  yard  of  each  of 
the  two  schoolhouses,  *'  to  commemo- 
rate the  goodness  of  the  United 
States " ;  and  each  stone  bears  an 
55 


Don  Horacio 

inscription,  in  Japanese,  relating  the 
story  of  the  wreck  of  the  lost  vessel, 
the  Cashmere,  and  concluding  with  a 
poem,  written  for  the  occasion,  by  a 
Japanese  poet  of  high  distinction,  ex- 
pressing appropriate  sentiments  in 
acceptance  of  the  gift  and  dedicating 
it  to  the  education  of  the  native  chil- 
dren. Photographs  of  these  school- 
houses  were  made  and  sent  to  Mr. 
Cutter  in  compliance  with  his  request.* 
These  distinguished  services,  thus 
rendered  by  Mr.  Cutter,  received  also 
the  highest  official  acknowledgment 
in  the  presentation  to  him  of  the 
**  Decoration  of  Merits  with  Blue 
Ribbon,"  which  was  granted  by  His 
Majesty  the  Emperor  of  Japan  and 

*  A  narrative  relating  some  of  these  inter- 
esting events  was  published  in  the  St.  Nicho- 
las Magazine,  September,  1894.  Mr.  Cutter 
has  also  made  further  reference  thereto  in  a 
brief  article,  entitled  "Two  Monuments," 
printed  in  the  Century  Magazine  (March, 
1891). 

56 


James  D.  Hague 

conferred  by  the  Government  upon 
Mr.  Cutter  (October  2 2d,  1894),  for 
his  "  noble  endeavors  relating  to  the 
establishment  of  the  schools  on  the 
Island  of  Tanegashima." 

Mr.  Cutter's  relations  with  Spain 
were  apparently  very  pleasant,  having 
begun  many  years  ago  (1879)  i^  ^ 
correspondence  with  Sefior  Castelar, 
when,  in  response  to  a  public  appeal 
for  aid  in  behalf  of  many  sufferers 
from  disastrous  floods  in  the  province 
of  Murcia,  he  sent  to  Castelar  a  gift 
of  one  thousand  francs  as  the  *'  con- 
tribution of  an  American  who  remem- 
bers that  the  discovery  of  his  native 
land  was  owing  to  the  generosity  of 
Spain."  Castelar  personally  acknowl- 
edged this  gift  in  a  very  gracious  let- 
ter and  sent  his  photograph,  bearing 
his  own  inscription  of  greeting  and 
friendly  regard,  *'  A  mi  amigo  Mora- 
cio  F.  Cutter,  en  prueba  de  entran- 
able  afecto,  Emilio  Castelar^ 
57 


Don  Horacio 

Not  long  thereafter,  Mr.  Cutter 
submitted  to  the  prime  minister  a 
plan  for  the  capture  of  Gibraltar  by 
means  of  balloons,  from  which  explo- 
sive bombs  were  to  be  dropped  upon 
the  British  occupants.  Castelar  re- 
sponded with  thanks  in  an  autograph 
letter,  expressing  his  appreciation 
with  the  intention  to  give  the  matter 
due  consideration  and  to  reply  further 
at  some  more  convenient  moment. 

It  was  probably  his  love  of  Spanish 
romance  that  led  Mr.  Cutter,  some 
years  later,  to  engage  actively,  though 
unsuccessfully,  in  the  financial  promo- 
tion of  a  project  for  raising  from  the 
bottom  of  the  bay  of  Vigo  the  Span- 
ish galleons,  sunk  there  in  1 702,  which 
were  supposed  to  be  laden  with  twen- 
ty-five millions  of  treasure,  but  proved, 
so  far  as  exploited,  to  contain  little  or 
nothing  of  available  value. 

In  1892,  Mr.  Cutter  was  appointed 
by  authority  of  the  Spanish  Govern- 
58 


James  D.  Hague 

ment  to  serve  on  a  commission  or- 
ganized to  promote  and  manage  an 
International  Exhibition  at  Madrid, 
in  celebration  of  the  Four  Hundredth 
Anniversary  of  the  Discovery  of  Am- 
erica by  Christopher  Columbus. 

The  attitude  of  Portugal  on  the 
question  of  slavery  and  the  slave  trade 
attracted  Mr.  Cutter's  ever- watchful 
eye,  some  years  since,  and  led  to  cer- 
tain manifestations  of  his  interest  in 
the  matter  through  the  press  of  the 
time  (i 889-1 890). 

The  friendly  relations  of  Russia 
with  the  United  States  during  the 
war  of  the  rebellion,  forty  years  ago, 
gave  Mr.  Cutter  much  satisfaction, 
and  he  made  it  the  subject  of  an  in- 
teresting contribution  to  history  in  a 
magazine  article,*  which  attracted  at- 
tention both  in  America  and  Europe. 

In  the  western  hemisphere  one  of 
Mr.  Cutter's  most  absorbing  interests 
^  Overland  Monthly^  September,  1892. 
59 


Don  Horacio 

was  arctic  exploration,  which  he  never 
ceased  to  follow  closely,  from  year  to 
year.  He  had  long-cherished  projects 
in  Bering's  Sea.  One  of  his  favorite 
schemes  was  the  purchase  of  British 
Columbia  by  the  United  States,  for 
which  he  proposed  to  pay  $100,000,- 
000,  in  gold  if  need  be,  but  preferably 
in  silver  bars,  with  the  double — bi- 
metallic—  purpose  of  acquiring  our 
neighbor's  coveted  territory  and  pay- 
ing for  it  in  the  unjustly  depreciated 
metal. 

He  was  greatly  interested  in  active- 
ly promoting  the  project  of  the  Drake 
Monument,  with  which  it  was  proposed 
to  mark  the  point  on  the  California 
coast,  now  known  as  Drake's  Bay,  near 
Point  Reyes,  not  far  from  San  Fran- 
cisco, where  Sir  Francis  Drake  landed 
in  1579,  and  where  his  much-abused 
chaplain,  Francis  Fletcher,  read  for 
the  first  time  in  California  the  service 
of  the  Church  of  England. 
60 


James  D.  Hague 

This  project  was  partly  realized  in 
the  erection  of  a  wooden  cross  at  a 
point  said  to  be  the  one  referred  to  ; 
but  a  more  easily  accessible  and  en- 
during monument,  in  recognition  of 
the  interesting  event,  has  since  been 
more  conspicuously  established  in 
Golden  Gate  Park,  in  the  city  of  San 
Francisco,  overlooking  the  sea. 

On  the  Mexican  coast  of  Lower 
California  an  enterprise  of  magnifi- 
cent proportions  was  projected  by 
Mr.  Cutter,  based,  as  he  affirmed,  on 
the  largest  private  landed  estate  in 
the  world,  for  the  gathering  and  util- 
ization of  seaweed  as  well  as  the  cul- 
tivation and  production  of  orchilla, 
a  vegetable  substitute  for  cochineal. 
Another  great  scheme  of  inter- 
national importance,  in  which  our 
lamented  friend  King  was  also  con- 
cerned, designed  to  reclaim  and  de- 
velop a  large,  unutilized  tract  of 
Mexican  territory,  near  our  boundary 

6i 


Don  Horacio 

and  lying  along  the  Colorado  River, 
for  the  cultivation  of  cotton  by  Jap- 
anese colonists  to  be  imported  for 
the  purpose,  engaged  to  the  time  of 
his  death  the  constant  attention  of 
Mr.  Cutter,  in  whose  far-reaching 
vision  the  capitalists  of  Japan,  Mexi- 
co, the  United  States  and  Europe 
were  to  participate  jointly. 

The  South  Seas  and  all  thereto 
pertaining,  especially,  the  royal  family 
of  Tahiti,  the  surviving  descendants 
of  the  mutineers  of  the  Bounty  on 
Pitcairn,  the  coral  islanders  and  the 
mysterious  graven  images  of  Easter 
Island,  were  always  for  Mr.  Cutter 
unfailing  sources  9f  interesting  ro- 
mance and  curious  speculation. 

His  last  international  effort,  in 
which  he  successfully  sought  the  finan- 
cial and  sympathetic  co-operation  of 
his  friends,  was  an  undertaking  to  send 
slates,  slate-pencils,  and  spelling-books 
to  primary  schools  in  the  Philippines. 
62 


James  D.  Hague 

With  all  his  devotion  to  foreign 
interests,  he  was  a  most  patriotic  citi- 
zen, thoroughly  American  in  spirit 
and  purpose  and  a  firm  believer  in 
the  high  vocation  and  destiny  of  the 
American  people  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth.  He  labored  persistently 
to  accomplish  some  desired  measures 
of  reform,  notably  in  the  Jury  laws, 
of  which,  it  is  said,  that  certain  legis- 
lative amendments,  made  in  several 
States,  have  been  largely  due  to  his 
efforts.  He  was  an  active  though 
not  a  leading  member  of  the  cele- 
brated Vigilance  Committee  in  San 
Francisco  (1856)  and  liked  to  tell  in 
later  years  of  his  participation  in  that 
public  service. 

One  object  of  his  constant  atten- 
tion at  home  was  the  Golden  Gate 
Park,  between  the  city  and  the  sea, 
or,  more  particularly,  the  aviary  there, 
which  was  created  and  maintained  by 
the  Park  commissioners  mainly  by 
63 


Don  Horacio 

Mr.  Cutter's  persuasive  influence  and 
action.  It  was  his  habit  to  visit  the 
aviary  almost  every  day.  He  knew 
all  the  birds  in  it  and  many  more  out- 
side. He  was  a  sort  of  bird-charmer 
in  his  way,  and  he  liked  to  tell  of 
friendly  humming-birds  that  would 
sometimes  alight  upon  his  hand  or 
head.  He  caused  the  introduction 
to  the  park  and  to  California  of  the 
J apanese  bulbul. *  He  was  personally 
acquainted  with  the  black  swans  on 
the  lake,  and  constantly  visited  and 
fed,  during  their  season,  his  migra- 
tory friends,  the  coots.  He  was  on 
familiar  terms  with  the  rainbow  trout. 
He  also  maintained  more  or  less  in- 
timate relations  with  the  elks,  the 
moose,  the  buffaloes,  and  the  big  griz- 

*  It  has  been  asserted  that  the  '*  ten  pairs  " 
of  bulbuls,  first  imported  from  Japan,  proved 
to  be  all  males,  without  a  single  mother-bird 
in  the  lot;  but  this  may  be  the  cynical  inven- 
tion of  some  "  eternal  misbeliever." 
64 


James  D.  Hague 

zly  bear,  and  was  a  particular  friend 
of  the  ruffled  moufflon  of  North 
Africa. 

He  beHeved  in  the  great  and  far- 
distant  future  of  San  Francisco,  and 
the  only  real  property  of  which  he 
died  possessed  is  a  still  deeply  sub- 
merged and  wholly  invisible  water-lot 
on  the  north  beach,  which  can  only 
become  valuable  to  generations  yet 
unborn. 

One  of  Mr.  Cutter's  most  notable 
achievements  was  the  fortuitous  in- 
vention (about  1870)  of  a  literary 
hoax,  which  attracted  world-wide  at- 
tention, purporting  to  answer  certain 
inquiries  which  were  just  then  in  cur- 
rent circulation  through  the  literary 
journals  of  the  period,  touching  the 
authorship  of  the  familiar  quotation, 
**  Though  lost  to  sight,  to  memory 
dear,"  the  origin  of  which  had  then 
long  been,  as  it  still  is,  a  puzzle  past 
finding  out,  the  inquiry  having  begun 

65 


Don  Horacio 

more,  than  fifty  years  ago  (185 1)  in 
Notes  and  Queries,  in  which  peri- 
odical the  subject  has  since  been 
again  and  again  discussed  by  many 
correspondents."  * 

Mr.  Cutter  s  first  conception  of  his 
hoax  was  apparently  quite  impromptu, 
intended  only  as  a  passing  joke  at  the 
expense  of  a  fellow  member  of  his 
club,  and  probably  without  any  ex- 
pectation that  it  would  be  carried 
further,  still  less  that  his  little  squib 
would  be  heard  around  the  world. 

It  appears  that,  somehow,  there 
had  come  to  be  a  popular  impression 
that  an  eccentric  individual  had  of- 
fered a  large  reward  for  such  infor- 
mation concerning  the  quotation  in 

*  According  to  Bartlett,  the  much-quoted 
line  in  question  originated  in  a  song,  written 
and  composed  by  George  Linley  for  Mr.  Au- 
gustus Braham,  and  sung  by  him  in  London, 
probably  about  1830;  but  certain  correspon- 
dents of  Notes  and  Queries  show  that  it  was  a 
"  familiar  quotation  "  long  before  then. 
66 


James  D.  Hague 

question  as  might  lead  to  the  convic- 
tion of  its  original  author ;  and  this 
so  stimulated  further  search  that  the 
matter  was  much  talked  of,  far  and 
wide,  largely  increasing  the  number 
of  active  inquirers,  among  whom  was 
one  in  San  Francisco,  who  so  persis- 
tently bored  certain  Union  Club 
companions  that  his  unceasing  im- 
portunities naturally  encouraged  any- 
body so  disposed  to  trifle  with  his 
credulity. 

About  this  time,  also,  there  ap- 
peared in  the  New  Orleans  Sunday 
Times,  a  communication  from  a  liter- 
ary correspondent,  purporting  to  give 
the  original  source  of  the  familiar 
line  in  **  verses  written  in  an  old 
memorandum  book,  the  author  not 
recollected,"  beginning  with  the  words 
"  Sweetheart,  goodbye  !  the  fluttering 
sail,"  and  ending  aptly  with  the 
quotation  *'  Though  lost  to  sight,  to 
memory  dear,"  to  embody  which  the 
67 


Don  Horacio 

accompanying  poem  had  been  com- 
posed. 

When  this  publication  met  Mr. 
Cutter's  eye,  he  promptly  announced 
to  his  inquiring  friend  not  only  the 
alleged  discovery  of  the  verses  but, 
moreover,  the  further  information, 
invented  by  himself,  that  the  author 
of  the  lines  was  '*  Ruthven  Jenkyns," 
whose  poem  first  appeared  in  the 
Greenwich  Magazine  for  Marines  in 
1 701. 

The  joke  was  taken  seriously  and 
communicated  in  good  faith  by  its 
credulous  victim  to  the  press,  im- 
mediately provoking  further  discus- 
sion of  the  subject,  which,  during 
many  following  years,  was  often  re- 
vived both  in  America  and  England. 
Mr.  Edward  Everett  Hale,  in  Old 
and  New,  intimated  that  the  marines 
at  Greenwich  had  hardly  attained  in 
1 701  such  development  of  literary 
culture  as  to  require  a  magazine  of 

68 


James  D.  Hague 

their  own  ;  and  one  of  the  leading 
literary  periodicals  in  England  said, 
in  effect,  that  inquiry  at  the  Library 
of  the  British  Museum  confirmed  the 
shrewd  suspicion  that  no  such  mag- 
azine ever  existed. 

In  1880,  a  London  publisher 
brought  out  the  bogus  song  in  sheet 
music,  concerning  which  Bartlett,  in 
his  Familiar  Quotations  (1891),  after 
saying  that  the  composer  of  the  music 
acknowledged,  in  a  private  letter, 
that  he  had  copied  the  song  from  an 
American  newspaper,  makes  a  per- 
sonal reference  to  Mr.  Cutter  as  *'  the 
reputed  author,  Ruthven  Jenkyns." 

An  amusing  sequel  to  the  story  of 
this  invented  name  appeared  when  a 
distinguished  member  of  the  Jenkins 
family  in  the  United  States,  a  man 
eminent  in  the  naval  service,  seri- 
ously claimed  Cutters  fictitious  au- 
thor as  an  ancestral  relative. 

It  seems,  moreover,  something  like 
69 


Don  Horacio 

a  touch  of  poetic  justice  in  the  mor- 
tuary notice  printed  in  a  San  Fran- 
cisco newspaper,  announcing  the 
death  of  Mr.  Cutter  and  briefly  re- 
viewing his  career,  that  the  creator  of 
Ruthven  Jenkyns,  a  wholly  imaginary 
character,  should  be  presented  as  first 
cousin  of  another  purely  fictitious 
person,  who  is  there  made  to  appear 
as  the  nearest  bereaved  relative  and 
chief  mourner  of  the  deceased.  The 
obituary  writer,  after  making  due 
mention  of  Mr.  Cutter's  pedigree  and 
his  relation  to  the  well-known  Coo- 
lidge  family  of  Boston,  says  that  his 
first  cousin  and  nearest  surviving  re- 
lative is  "Susan  Coolidge,  the  au- 
thor," a  name  familiar  to  story  readers 
as  the  wholly  fictitious  nom-de-plume 
of  Miss  Sarah  Chauncey  Woolsey. 

Another    significant     example    of 
hasty  editorial   misapprehension    oc- 
curs   in    the    same    obituary    notice, 
wherein  the  deceased,  by  ridiculous 
70 


James  D.  Hague 

misnomer,  is  pathetically  alluded  to 
as  the  '*  Hermit  of  Mambrino." 

In  his  later  years  Cutter  seemed  to 
his  daily  companions  to  be  neither 
rich  nor  poor,  well  known  to  be  im- 
pecunious, yet  lacking  nothing  neces- 
sary to  his  comfort.  He  was,  in  fact, 
both  poor  and  rich,  with  hardly  a 
dollar  that  he  could  really  and  truly 
call  his  own,  yet  rich  and  happy,  not 
only  in  his  favorite  illusions  but  in 
the  resources  of  personal  friendship 
and  in  the  possession  of  devoted 
friends  who  never  failed  to  provide 
him  with  all  desired  means  of  living, 
in  such  a  gracious  way  that  he  could 
not  have  felt,  if  he  ever  knew,  his 
obligation  to  others.  His  wants  were 
few  and  he  required  little  for  personal 
subsistence.  He  used  to  say,  *'  I  have 
enough  already  for  my  necessities. 
What  I  wish  for  now  is  enough  for 
my  eccentricities."  He  really  desired 
wealth  for  the  benefit  of  others.  On 
71 


Don  Horacio 

a  certain  occasion,  when  he  had  ex- 
pressed to  an  acquaintance  his  pro- 
found sympathy  for  their  mutual 
friend  Clarence  King  in  a  recent  mis- 
fortune which,  he  said,  had  cost  King 
a  loss  of  $400,000,  he  explained,  upon 
cross-examination,  that  the  alleged 
loss,  which  he  thus  deplored  on  King's 
account,  consisted  really  in  a  construc- 
tive loss  which  he  himself  had  lately 
made  in  failing  to  realize  a  hoped-for 
profit  of  $400,000,  in  a  negotiation 
for  the  sale  of  mining  property,  which 
had  just  then  finally  resulted  in  com- 
plete disappointment,  but  on  the  suc- 
cess of  which  he  had  till  then  reckoned 
so  confidently  that  he  had  already 
made  a  will,  bequeathing  to  Clarence 
King  a  fortune  of  $400,000,  which, 
under  existing  circumstances,  could 
now  never  be  realized,  and  his  only 
regret  was  for  King's  misfortune,  in 
the  loss  of  so  much  money. 

It  appears  from  another  character- 
72 


James  D.  Hague 

istic  anecdote  of  Mr.  Cutter  that  this 
imaginary  fortune  of  $400,000  af- 
forded him  not  only  the  illusory  de- 
light of  acquiring  it,  as  he  thought  he 
had  done  at  the  time,  with  the  real 
pleasure  of  giving  it  to  King,  as  he 
actually  did  in  his  will,  but,  moreover, 
the  great  satisfaction  of  saving  it  from 
loss,  as  he  believed  he  had,  by  a  very 
rare  streak  of  good  luck. 

About  the  time  when  he  was  daily 
expecting  to  realize  his  profit  of  $400,- 
000,  the  trusted  friend  and  private 
banker  with  whom  he  intended  to 
deposit  the  whole  sum  came  to  grief 
in  a  disastrous  failure,  which  swept 
away  everything  in  his  possession  ; 
and  Mr.  Cutter's  money,  had  it  been 
realized  and  so  deposited,  would  thus 
have  been  wholly  lost.  **  It  was  the 
narrowest  escape  of  my  life,"  he  after- 
wards said,  "  the  closest  shave  I  ever 
had."  It  made  him  shudder  to  think 
how  nearly  he  had  accomplished  the 
73 


Don  Horacio 

making  of  a  fortune,  only  to  lose  it 
again  in  the  mishap  of  a  moment. 
The  situation  seemed  still  more  sig- 
nificant when  among  the  bankrupt's 
worthless  assets  there  was  found  an 
outlawed  note  of  his  friend  Cutter 
for  $150. 

In  personal  appearance  Don  Ho- 
racio was  moderately  tall,  rather 
slender,  sometimes  almost  gaunt,  al- 
though always  of  kindly  countenance, 
with  thin  gray  hair  and  scanty  beard. 
But  for  the  picturesque  drapery  of  the 
long  cloak  he  might  have  posed  for 
the  Century  Magazines  artistic  draw- 
ing of  the  guide  and  companion  of 
King's  journey  in  La  Mancha,  *'  Sal- 
azar, — a  poor  gentleman,  humbled  by 
fate,  yet  rich  in  the  qualities  of  senti- 
ment which  make  good  men  and  good 
friends."  There  was  no  suggestion 
of  Spanish  romance  in  Don  Horacio's 
dress,  which  was  invariably  a  plain 
dark  suit,  with  short  sack  coat  and 
74 


(V^  K, 


The  above  picture,  a  snap-shot,  shows  Don  Horacio  in  the  act  of  telling 
the  story  of  his  marvelous  escape  from  drowning  in  the  Oakland  railway- 
bridge  disaster,  pointing  with  his  stick,  as  lie  had  done  at  the  moment  ol 
danger,  to  a  fellow  passenger  then  struggling  in  the  water,  and  shouting  to 
the  rescuers  in  a  boat  to  "  Save  that  man!  " 


James  D.  Hague 

high  silk  hat,  more  or  less  worn  out, 
according  to  the  interval  occurring 
between  successful  election  bets,  al- 
ways on  the  Republican  candidate, 
the  source  from  which  all  his  hats 
were  derived. 

Mr.  Cutter's  high  hat,  a  character- 
istic and  familiar  feature  of  his  out- 
door dress,  curiously  recalls  one  of 
the  most  extraordinary  events  of  his 
career,  when,  being  a  passenger  in 
a  suburban  (Oakland)  railway  train 
which  had  plunged  through  an  open 
draw  from  a  trestle  bridge  into  the 
water  (an  accident  which  involved 
some  loss  of  life  by  drowning,  in  May, 
1 891),  he  climbed  through  the  broken 
window  next  his  seat,  badly  lacerating 
his  hands  and  arms  and  drenching 
his  body  nearly  up  to  his  neck,  and 
with  great  difficulty  managed  to  reach 
the  roof  of  the  car  and  thence  the 
track  on  the  trestle,  narrowly  escap- 
ing with  his  life  but  saving  spotless 
77 


Don  Horacio 

and  unruffled  his  high  silk  hat,  which 
he  most  carefully  protected  at  the 
moment  of  extreme  danger  and  kept 
thereafter  as  an  evidence  of  his  im- 
perturbable equanimity  under  the 
most  trying  circumstances. 

This  adventure  was  also  the  occa- 
sion of  another  noteworthy  incident, 
in  which  Mr.  Cutter  seemed  pleased 
to  perceive  something  of  psychical 
mystery,  especially  in  its  relation  to 
his  favorite  ghost  story,  which  he  had 
known  by  heart  since  first  reading  it 
in  All  the  Year  Round,  brought  out 
by  Charles  Dickens  in  1861,  purport- 
ing to  be  the  truthful  narrative  of 
Thomas  Heaphy,  a  well-known  Eng- 
lish artist,  who  relates  the  rare  ex- 
perience of  painting  a  portrait,  at 
least  in  part,  from  the  visible  appari- 
tion of  a  young  lady  who  had  shortly 
before  departed  this  life.  The  facts 
and  incidents  of  this  narrative  had 
long  been  the  subject  of  much  dis- 
78 


James  D.  Hague 

cussion  among  truth-seekers  in  the 
field  of  psychical  research,  in  all  of 
which  Mr.  Cutter  was  deeply  inter- 
ested. On  the  occasion  of  his  rail- 
way disaster,  as  he  reached  dry  land, 
walking  from  the  shore-end  of  the 
trestle  along  the  railway  line,  he  pres- 
ently met,  near  the  door  of  their  cot- 
tage, two  ladies,  who  insisted  on 
giving  him  aid  and  comfort.  They 
bound  up  his  bleeding  wounds  with 
such  solicitude  that  Mr.  Cutter  could 
not  do  less  than  return,  a  few  days 
later,  to  make  his  grateful  acknowl- 
edgments, on  which  occasion  he  was 
surprised  and  pleased  to  find  that  the 
elder  lady  was  the  daughter  of  the 
artist  who  had  painted  the  mysterious 
portrait  and  who  had  thereafter  re- 
lated the  ** wonderful  ghost  story"  to 
Charles  Dickens,  who  printed  it  in 
his  magazine.  The  lady  herself  had 
somehow  participated  in  at  least  one 
incident  of  the  story,  when  she  with 

7Q 


Don  Horacio 

her  own  eyes  had  seen  the  apparition 
leaving  her  father's  house,  and  she 
was  able  to  add  some  interesting  and 
unrelated  details  to  the  written  narra- 
tive. She  also  gave  to  Mr.  Cutter, 
or  at  least  promised  to  obtain  for 
him,  from  one  of  her  family,  a  photo- 
graph of  the  portrait  made  by  her 
father  of  the  "  phantom  ladye." 

Mr.  Cutter  delighted  in  ghost 
stories  and  psychical  mysteries  of 
every  kind.  Sir  Edward  Lytton's 
story  of  a  haunted  house.  The  House 
and  the  Brain,  was  one  of  his  prime 
favorites.  His  reading  generally 
covered  a  wide  range,  from  fairy 
tales  and  juvenile  literature,  espe- 
cially of  the  grown-up  variety,  like 
Alice  in  Wonderland,  Babb  Ballads, 
The  Adventures  of  Bre'r  Fox  and 
Brer  Rabbit  and  the  primitive  folk- 
lore of  Uncle  Remus,  on  the  one 
hand,  to  the  latest  reports  of  current 
astronomical  research,  on  the  other. 
80 


James  D.  Hague 

He  had  been  interested  in  star-gaz- 
ing from  his  youth  up,  and  one  of 
the  favorite  recollections  of  his  early 
life  in  Boston  was  a  story  he  liked 
to  tell  concerning  Alvah  Clark,  the 
afterwards  famous  lens-maker,  who, 
he  said,  at  that  time,  used  to  stand 
with  his  telescope  on  Boston  Com- 
mon, during  fine  evenings,  to  give 
the  passers-by  a  peep  at  the  moon  or 
stars,  at  popular  prices.  The  youth- 
ful Cutter  spent  many  a  dime  in  these 
observations  and  became  personally 
acquainted  with  Clark,  who  so  highly 
appreciated  the  zeal  of  the  young  ob- 
server that  he  often  gave  him  a  free 
show  as  a  compliment.  On  one  oc- 
casion, when  it  was  about  time  to  go 
home,  Clark  invited  Cutter  to  take  one 
more  look,  without  pay,  at  something 
of  his  choice.  "Don't  be  in  a  hurry," 
he  said,  ''  take  your  time ;  let 's  have 
another  whack  at  Zeta  Cancri  any- 
way, before  we  go." 

81 


Don  Horacio 

Among  the  carefully  kept  papers 
and  personal  belongings  of  Don 
Horacio,  which  his  executor  has 
kindly  placed  at  my  disposal  for  the 
purpose  of  this  memoir,  are  many 
letters,  notes,  manuscripts  and  printed 
papers,  referring  to  various  matters 
and  events  in  which  he  had  been 
an  interested  participant.  Notable 
among  these  are  some  long-pre- 
served epistles  from  Edward  Everett 
Hale,  commenting  on  the  current 
events  of  their  time.  In  one  of 
these  (1888),  addressed  to  ''My 
dear  guide,  philosopher  and  friend," 
Mr.  Hale  writes:  *'  I  regard  you  as 
the  prophet  of  the  Politics  and  social 
order  of  the  20th  century.  This 
is  to  be  an  order  based  not  on 
Adam  Smith's  separate  and  informal 

doctrine   of    *the    D 1  take   the 

hindmost '  but  on  Jesus  Christ's  di- 
rection that  we  should  bear  each 
other's  burdens."    ..."  You  and 

82 


James  D.  Hague 

I  are  lingerers  on  the  borders  of 
the  19th  century,  let  us  push  our 
ideas  over  the  frontier,  into  the  20th 
century."  And  in  another  letter  of 
earlier  date:  "  When  I  write  to  you 
I  step  off  my  rather  Gradgrind  daily 
path  to  the  romantic  and  poetic  and 
Pacific  world.  The  Damsel  of  Den- 
mark, Amadis,  Esplandian  and  Ori- 
ana  enter  at  the  open  door,  and  to 
them  follow  Thorwaldsen,  Hamlet 
and  Horacio." 

Responding  to  Mr.  Cutter's  re- 
quest for  a  personal  autograph,  Cas- 
telar  enclosed  to  him  in  a  letter, 
dated  at  Madrid,  January  i,  1880, 
a  separate  page,  which  is  reproduced 
here  in  fac-simile  :  * 

*  "  Does  it  not  seem  to  you  that  Faith  is 
necessary  to  inspire  sublime  actions  or  to 
console  one  in  extreme  sorrows  ?  It  is  im- 
possible to  cross  the  Ocean  of  life  without 
Faith.  In  that  vessel  Columbus  embarked, 
and  he  found  at  the  end  of  his  voyage  a 
83 


Don  Horacio 

The  London  T^'^/^^j*  correspondent* 
in  China,  with  whom  Mr.  Cutter  ex- 
changed several  letters  concerning  the 
unhappy  fate  of  Yakoob  Begs  chil- 
dren, wrote  in  1881  : 

''You  might  send  me  your  photo- 
graph. I  confess  to  a  curiosity  to 
see  the  features  of  a  phenomenal 
American  who  can  find  time,  in  the 
midst  of  bustling  'Frisco,  to  take  an 
interest  in  the  fate  of  two  young 
barbarians  in  Central  Asia.  If  there 
is  much  of  this  pure  philanthropy 
in  California  there  is  hope  for  you 
yet." 

The  cordial  friendship  of  King 
and  Cutter  began  with  their  first  ac- 
quaintance, more  than  thirty  years 
ago.  In  Cutter's  eyes  King  was,  be- 
New  World.  Had  that  world  not  existed 
God  would  have  created  it  in  the  solitude 
of  the  Ocean,  were  it  only  to  reward  the 
Faith  and  constancy  of  that  man." 

*  William  Donald  Spence. 
84 


Don  Horacio 

yond  compare,  a  man  after  his  own 
heart ;  and  King,  himself  a  life-long 
lover  of  Cervantes,  saw  in  Cutter  the 
modern  Don  Quixote  of  California. 

Several  letters  written  at  sundry 
times  by  King  to  Cutter,  show  so 
well  some  characteristic  traits  of  both 
men,  that  I  venture  to  transcribe  here 
certain  passages  of  special  interest : 

(Date  noted — November  11/  88). 

"  En  route  to  El  Paso. 
**  My  dear  Don  Horacio 

"  I  owe  you,  as  is  alas  too  often 
the  case  with  me,  a  full  and  humble 
lamentation  for  so  long  neglecting 
your  letter. 

'*  Since  my  last  visit  to  California 
I  have  been  nearly  all  the  time  a  sick 
man  and  when  the  life  and  buoyancy 
of  good  health  depart  from  a  man's 
body  the  poor  mind  grows  weary  and 
the  thousand  and  one  duties  of  daily 
life    lie    like    heavy   burdens    which 

86 


James  D.  Hague 

must  be  again  and  again  lifted  by  an 
effort  of  tired  will. 

"  Thus  with  me  the  duties  of  the 
days  and  weeks  seem  like  an  insur- 
mountable wall  always  in  front  of  me. 
Perhaps  in  some  flush  of  strength 
some  day  I  may  clear  the  wall  and 
land  in  the  green  pastures  beyond, 
where  the  heart  may  find  utterance 
and  joy  again. 

**  But  all  these  long  months  past, 
in  spite  of  my  silence  and  my  general 
nonproductiveness,  I  never  passed  a 
day  without  my  thoughts  wandering 
to  you,  my  old  and  valued  friend. 

"  I  am  happier  for  knowing  you 
and  your  unclouded  soul. 

*'  Before  very  long  I  want  to  make 
a  pilgrimage  to  California  if  it  is  only 
to  take  our  classic  walk  through  the 
fresh  greenery  of  park,  the  gray  mono- 
tone of  our  beloved  sand-dunes  and 
reach  the  lips  of  the  Pacific  and  hear 
him  whisper  to  us  of  far  lands  and 
87 


Don  Horacio 

infinite  horizons.  It  breaks  my  heart 
to  think  that  the  day  will  come  when 
our  happy  feet  cannot  wander  together 
thither,  that  one  of  us  will  tread  the 
sands  alone,  and  then  a  little  later  no 
footfall  of  either  will  leave  its  print 
by  the  foamy  edge  of  our  sea. 

**  But  God  grant  that  where  the 
waters  of  Paradise  ebb  and  flow  in 
the  sunshine  of  Eternal  Peace,  there 
together  we  may  wander  with  hearts 
still  warmer,  thoughts  still  loftier, 
souls  more  transparent.     Amen." 

**  Dear  Friend,  Men  are  such 
mute  undemonstrative  creatures  that 
I  do  not  know  if  I  ever  said  in  words 
how  greatly  I  value  our  friendship. 
If  I  have  not,  no  matter,  you  have 
felt  my  meaning.    .    .    .    Ever  yours 

"  Clarence." 


88 


James  D.  Hague 

(Stamped  1893.) 

"  Newport,  October  24. 
**  Dear  Amigo  Horacio  : 

**  I  just  came  home  from  a  month's 
journey  in  Canada  and  my  mind  was 
full  of  annexation  already  when  I 
found  your  letter  with  the  two  news- 
paper extracts  on  the  Drake  Monu- 
ment and  the  British  Columbia  idea. 
At  the  same  time  I  found  the  letter 
of  Aug.  28  with  your  copy  of  the 
Critic  note  on  the  two  heroes  of 
Spain. 

*'  I  always  sympathize,  you  know, 
with  all  your  projects  and  ideas  be- 
cause they  are  always  high-minded 
and  good  and  for  the  real  inspiring 
of  man.  You  ought  to  be  a  sort  of 
general  autocrat  of  the  spiritual  and 
aesthetic  destinies  of  America,  with 
full  power  to  carry  out  your  good  and 
admirable  plans.  Yet  with  all  the 
disadvantages  of  being  a  private  in- 
dividual you  have  really  carried  into 
89 


Don  Horacio 

execution  more  than  any  idealist  I 
ever  knew.  You  saved  the  Kashgar- 
ian  children,  you  made  a  stupid  nation 
reward  the  good  Japanese.  You  will 
mark  the  landing  of  Drake  and  you 
will  see  British  Columbia  ours,  and  I 
believe  you  will  see  Gibraltar  under 
the  flag  of  Spain.  This  latter  if  not 
with  mortal  eyes,  yet  with  those  clearer 
seeing  orbs  when  we  see  no  longer 
with  dimness  of  human  imperfection 
*  through  a  glass  darkly '  you  will  be- 
hold from  the  slopes  of  Heaven  the 
fulfilment  of  your  lofty  and  worthy 
dreams. 

**  I  am  impatient  to  see  you  and 
hold  converse  with  you,  and  see  the 
enthusiasm  kindle  your  eye  again  and 
feel  the  warmth  of  your  faith  and  your 
humanity.  Soon  may  it  be.  .  .  . 
I  have  a  feeling  in  my  bones  that 
something  will  take  me  to  California 
before  long.  It  is  just  one  of  those 
vague  presentiments  that  always  come 
go 


James  D.  Hague 

true  with  me.  Either  I  shall  come 
there  or  you  will  come  here.  So  I 
will  keep  my  heart  up  on  that  hope. 
Oh  dear  Don  Horacio  how  deeply  I 
wish  we  might  live  under  the  same 
skies  and  talk  together  daily  instead 
of  with  the  dull  silence  of  years  be- 
tween our  meetings. 

"  Ever  yours 

'*  Clarence." 


"  December  lo,  '93. 

"  My  dear  Don  Horacio  : 

'*  At  last  I  am  able  to  write  you  a 
few  lines.  Hague  has  told  me  of 
your  affectionate  anxiety  about  me. 
It  will  I  am  sure  comfort  you  to  know 
that  my  condition  daily  improves, 
that  my  difficulty  is  not  organic,  that 
it  will  pass  away  in  a  few  months 
leaving  me  as  well  as  ever.  The 
whole  nervous  system  will  have  to  be 
given  a  complete  rest  for  several 
91 


Don  Horacio 

months.  The  doctors  say  that  a  very 
long  railway  journey  may  not  be  un- 
dertaken by  me  under  a  year.  I  had 
a  dream  of  coming  to  California  in 
the  spring  but  that  must  be  given  up. 
**  Do  write  me  of  your  feelings  and 
doings :  you  know  nothing  gives  me 
greater  pleasure  than  to  breathe  the 
same  intellectual  atmosphere  with 
you,  for  am  I  not  also  of  the  family 
of  Quixote  ?     .     .     . 

**  Ever  affectionately 
"  Clarence." 

Of  much  earlier  date  than  the  pre- 
ceding letters  is  the  long-treasured 
note  of  introduction  which  follows  : 

"  23  Fifth  Avenue,  January,  1878. 

*'  Dear  Mr.  Cutter, 

"  Life  is  so   short   and  uncertain 
that  I  find  myself  in  haste  for  you 
and  my  friend  Mr.  Thomas  Sturgis, 
92 


James  D.  Hague 

who  will  '  serve  this  notice '  on  you 
to  know  each  other.  I  have  felt  it  a 
privilege  to  know  in  you  the  intimate 
companion  of  Socrates.  My  friend 
who  is  like  yourself  somewhat  divided 
between  the  hot  pursuit  of  modern 
things,  and  the  contemplation  of  the 
too-much-forgotten  glories  of  the  past, 
will  be  I  know  a  welcome  acquaint- 
ance to  my  dear  philosopher,  my 
valued  anachronism,  my  friend  of  the 
book  and  owL  Perhaps  the  dust  still 
lingers  on  some  solitary  glass  cylinder 
known  only  to  you  in  the  secret  re- 
cesses of  the  Union  Club  cellar  and 
that  you  will  draw  out  the  cork  and 
my  friend  at  the  same  sitting. 
"  Socrato-memorabilially  yours 

*'  Clarence  King." 

H.  F.  Cutter,  Esq. 

And   here   are   two    characteristic 
notes,  addressed  many  years  ago  by 

93 


Don  Horacio 

King  to  his  friends,  W.  D.  Howells 
and  John  Hay,  introducing  Mr.  Cut- 
ter to  their  personal  acquaintance,  and 
ever  since  carefully  kept,  awaiting 
opportunities  which  never  came : 

**  San  Francisco. 

**  My  DEAR  Howells, 

**  You  made  a  great  mistake  in  not 
coming  to  California  with  Pres't 
Hayes.  Not  in  missing  the  Yosemite, 
not  in  failing  to  pour  out  a  libational 
cocktail  at  (that  Ultima  Thule  of  the 
Aryan  migration)  the  Cliff  House, 
but  in  losing  the  chance  to  meet 
some  choice  spirits  at  table  with  me. 
I  had  five  or  six  good  men  and  true  to 
lie  in  wait  for  you  and  drag  you  away 
from  royalty  and  make  a  dinner. 

"  However  I  love  you  and  will 
partly  make  it  up  to  you.  The  best 
of  all  my  symposium  is  the  good 
friend  Mr.  Horace  F.  Cutter  who  will 

94 


James  D.  Hague 

present  you  this.     He  is  salt  which 
hath  not  lost  its  savour.      Verb,  sap, 
'*  Yours  ever, 

*'  Clarence  King." 

"  San  Francisco. 
"  My  dear  John, 

"  My  friend  Mr.  Horace  F.  Cutter 
in  the  next  geological  period  will  go 
east.  It  would  be  a  catastrophy  if 
he  did  not  know  you.  You  will 
*  swarm  in,'  as  the  Germans  say,  when 
you  meet.  Lest  I  should  not  be 
there  to  expose  Mr.  Cutter's  alias  I 
take  this  opportunity  to  divulge  to 
you  that  the  police  are  divided  in 
opinion  as  to  whether  he  is  Socrates 
or  Don  Quixote.  I  know  better — he 
is  both. 

**  Ever  yours, 

"  Clarence  King." 

It  was  for  love   of  this   Quixotic 
friend  that   King  went,  in   1882,  to 
95 


Don  Horacio 

seek  the  Helmet  of  Mambrino,  in 
the  province  of  La  Mancha.  In  1885 
he  sent  to  Mr.  Cutter  the  barber's 
basin  he  found  there,  together  with 
the  formal  letter  accompanying  his 
gift.  This  letter,  not  originally  in- 
tended for  publication,  was  printed 
in  the  Century  Magazine  the  follow- 
ing year,  in  May,  1886,  addressed  to 
*'  Don  Horacio."  The  originally  fin- 
ished manuscript,  engrossed  on  large 
paper  and  bound  in  silk  which  was 
cut  from  a  robe  of  the  period  of  Cer- 
vantes, was  kept  as  a  precious  treasure 
by  Don  Horacio  during  his  lifetime, 
and  was  found  by  friends  after  his 
death  among  his  most  valued  effects 
in  the  barely  furnished  upper-room 
in  which  he  lodo^ed. 

But  perhaps  the  most  precious  thing 
on  earth  to  Don  Horacio  was  the  Hel- 
met of  Mambrino,  the  barber  s  basin. 
He  kept  it  carefully  in  his  room,  to 
be  seen  occasionally  by  rare  visitors, 
96 


James  D.  Hague 

for  whose  entertainment  he  some- 
times set  it  on  his  head,  to  show 
how  it  might  have  appeared  to  Don 
Quixote  and  to  that  **  eternal  misbe- 
Hever"  Sancho  Panza,  when  worn 
by  the  approaching  barber.  An  ac- 
quaintance who  visited  Don  Hora- 
cio  in  his  room,  about  six  months 
before  his  death,  relates  that  Mr. 
Cutter  called  his  attention  to  a 
paper-wrapped  parcel,  saying  "  Do 
you  see  this  box  ?  It  contains  the 
most  precious  treasure  in  San  Fran- 
cisco. It  is  the  Helmet  of  Mambrino." 
When  Don  Horacio  was  stricken 
with  his  last  illness  he  was  taken  by 
his  nearest  friends  from  his  lodging, 
where  proper  care  and  nursing  were 
impossible,  first  to  his  club  and  thence, 
a  few  days  later,  to  the  hospital  where 
he  shortly  after  died.  One  of  the 
ladies  of  his  most  intimate  family  ac- 
quaintance gave  him  her  constant 
care  as  nurse.     This  lady  relates  that 

97 


Don  Horacio 

shortly  before  his  death,  Don  Hora- 
cio made  a  request  (with  which  it 
was  then  impracticable  to  comply) 
that  certain  favorite  books,  among 
them,  doubtless,  Amadis  of  Gaul 
and  Palmerin  of  England  (1540  and 
1547),  and  with  them,  especially,  the 
"  helmet,"  be  brought  from  his  lodg- 
ings to  his  bedside,  where  he  could 
see  them  during  his  illness.  At  the 
last  moment  she  supported  his  reclin- 
ing head,  which  fell  upon  her  shoul- 
der as  he  died.  His  last  intelligible 
words  were  ""  Love  to  Clarencio,"  his 
favorite  name  for  King,  who,  first  of 
all,  had  named  him  '*  Don  Horacio." 
His  mortal  remains  are  now  in  re- 
pose, sharing  in  silent  companionship 
the  final  rest  of  lifelong  friends,*  in 
whose  family  tomb,  a  stately  mauso- 
leum, overlooking  the  sea  from  his 
favorite  point  of  view,  Don  Horacio's 
memorial  tablet  bears  the  inscription, 

*  The  Bourn  family. 
98 


James  D.  Hague 


HORACE    F.  CUTTER 

*  *  *  * 

Sometime    known    as 

"  The  Bachelor  of  San  Francisco  " 


HELMET  OF  MAMBRINO 


Nearly  eighteen  months  intervened 
between  Don  Horacio's  death  at  San 
Francisco,  July  13,  1900,  and  the 
death  of  King  at  Phoenix,  Arizona, 
December  24,  1901.  Shortly  after 
the  last-named  event  I  determined 
to  obtain,  if  possible,  the  original  en- 
grossed manuscript  and  silk-bound 
copy  of  King's  letter  to  Don  Hora- 
cio,  together  with  its  accompanying 
99 


Don  Horacio 

barber's  basin,  to  be  preserved  as 
fitting  souvenirs  of  King  in  the  Cen- 
tury Club ;  and  on  my  next  visit  to 
California,  in  May,  1902,  I  made  my 
wish  known  to  Don  Horacio's  close 
friend  and  principal  legatee,  who  was 
also  his  duly  appointed  executor.* 
He  said :  *'  You  can  easily  get  the 
manuscript.  My  wife  has  it  and  will 
be  pleased  to  give  it  for  your  pur- 
pose. As  for  the  basin,  I  know  noth- 
ing about  it.  I  have  not  seen  it  for 
years,  nor  thought  of  it  since  Cutter's 
death.  My  sister,  who  was  with  Cut- 
ter when  he  died,  may  know  what 
became  of  the  basin.  I  will  ask  her." 
On  inquiry,  his  sister  said  that  she, 
too,  had,  unfortunately,  forgotten  all 
about  the  basin.  She  had  been  un- 
able, after  Don  Horacio's  death,  to 
visit  his  lodging  or  give  attention  to 
the  disposition  of  his  effects,  and  if 
the  basin  were  missing  she  would  not 
*  Mr.  William  B.  Bourn. 


James  D.  Hague 

know  where  to  look  for  it  now.  The 
manager  and  janitor  of  the  office 
building  where  Cutter  had  lodged 
were  equally  ignorant  concerning  the 
matter  inquired  of,  although  one  of 
them  had  seen  the  paper-wrapped 
parcel,  said  to  contain  the  helmet,  in 
Cutter's  hands  not  long  before  his 
death ;  and  Don  Horacio's  request 
that  the  helmet  be  brought  from  his 
lodgings  to  his  bedside  was  remem- 
bered as  a  certain  indication  that  the 
basin  had  been  there  among  his  per- 
sonal effects  when  he  left  his  lodging 
for  the  last  time.  They  gave  the 
further  information  that  when  certain 
books  and  other  chosen  articles  had 
been  removed  from  the  room  shortly 
after  Cutter's  death,  the  remaining 
effects  had  been  sold  to  a  second- 
hand furniture  dealer  who,  some 
weeks  thereafter,  took  everything 
away,  including,  possibly  the  missing 
basin ;    but    this    possibility    proved 

lor 


Don  Horacio 

disappointing,  for  the  dealer  affirmed, 
on  careful  inquiry,  that  nothing  like 
the  thing  described  had  ever  come 
into  his  possession.  Thereupon  it. 
was  determined  to  employ  a  detective 
to  prosecute  the  search  and  also  to 
seek  further  light  by  advertisements 
in  the  papers,  whereof  in  one,  sand- 
wiched between  the  announcements 
of  a  very  liberal  reward  for  the  re- 
covery of  a  lost  dog,  and  of  a  hygienic 
remedy  for  restoring  lost  hair,  there 
presently  appeared  the  offer  of  a  valu- 
able consideration  for  the  return  of  a 
Spanish  barber  s  basin,  an  heirloom, 
of  no  value  except  to  the  owner.* 


INFORMATION     WANTED. 


INFORMATION  wanted  that  will  help  find  an 
old  Spanish-made  babers'  brass  basin,  an  heir- 
loom, only  valuable  to  advertiser.  Suitable  re- 
ward paid.  Address  W..  401  Califomla  St., 
room  14. 


LOST. 


LOST — White    bull    terrier,     brlndle    patch    over 
both  eyes,  spiked  collar  aud  having  name  and 
address  of  owner  on   it.     Very   liberal  reward 
-      -"--ii-n    1049  Market  st. 


James  D.  Hague 

Pending  hoped-for  results  I  re- 
turned to  New  York,  where,  shortly- 
after,  I  received  the  desired  manu- 
script with  the  discouraging  informa- 
tion that  no  sign  of  the  basin  had 
yet  appeared.  I  wrote  in  response, 
urging  that  no  effort  or  expense  be 
spared  in  continuing  the  search  until 
the  basin  should  be  found  ;  and,  about 
a  fortnight  later  I  had  the  great 
pleasure  of  receiving  a  telegram  from 
Don  Horacio's  executor,  reading 
*'  Helmet  found — will  be  forwarded 
to-morrow." 

The  morrow  and  several  following 
days  passed,  however,  without  further 
advice  until,  about  the  end  of  June, 
the  expected  parcel  arrived,  contain- 
ing the  promised  basin,  with  a  note 
explaining  that  the  delay  had  been 
occasioned  by  the  time  required 
for  the  proper  identification  of  the 
**  Helmet,"  which,  it  appeared,  had 
at  last  turned  up  in  a  well-known 
103 


Don  Horacio 

pawnbroker's  shop,  without  any  sat- 
isfactory information  as  to  where  it 
came  from  or  how  it  got  there  and 
with  a  plainly  implied  suggestion  of 
**  No  questions  asked  or  answered." 
Under  these  circumstances  it  was 
thought  desirable  that  the  helmet 
should  be  identified  before  accept- 
ance, for  which  purpose  it  was  sent 
to  the  country  home  of  the  friends 
most  competent  to  judge,  who  recog- 
nized it  positively  as  the  missing 
basin  of  Don  Horacio,  otherwise 
known  as  the  **  Helmet  of  Mam- 
brino,"  whereupon  its  purchase  from 
the  dealer  for  the  price  of  seven  dol- 
lars was  completed  and  the  basin  was 
forwarded  to  New  York. 

With  it  came  also  sundry  bills  of 
incidental  expenses,  notably  that  of 
the  detective  agent  who  rendered  an 
account  for  his  professional  services 
in  recovering  what,  by  queer  mis- 
nomer, he  erroneously  describes  as 
104 


James  D.  Hague 

the  **  Helmet  of  Sombrino."  These 
expenses  amounted,  in  all,  to  about 
forty  dollars,  notwithstanding  the 
very  liberal  discount  of  33-I  per  cent, 
which  the  detective  made  on  purely 
sentimental  and  friendly  considera- 
tions, being  himself  a  man  of  strongly 
sympathetic  temperament,  a  constant 
reader  of  the  Century  Magazine  and 
the  proud  possessor  of  a  long  line  of 
back  numbers,  in  the  proper  one  of 
which  (May,  1886),  he  had  promptly 
found  the  story  of  the  "  Helmet"  and 
the  picture  of  the  basin,  all  of  which 
he  was  able  to  place  at  the  disposal 
of  those  who  were  called  upon  to 
identify  the  property  of  Don  Horacio, 
before  concluding  its  purchase  at  the 
pawnbroker's^ 

The  actual  possession  of  the  basin 
gave  great  satisfaction  to  all  con- 
cerned in  looking  for  it,  but  still 
left  unsatisfied  a  lasting  curiosity 
touching  its  mysterious  disappear- 
107 


Don  Horacio 

ance  from  Don  Horacio's  lodging 
and  its  whereabouts  thereafter  until 
it  reappeared  in  the  hands  of  the 
pawnbroker. 

My  wish  to  know  these  things  was 
so  strong  that  on  visiting  San  Fran- 
cisco again  in  August  (1902),  I  called 
at  the  pawnbroker's  in  pursuit  of  the 
desired  information.  I  found  him  an 
Israelite  indeed  in  whom  there  was 
no  guile  —  perceptible.  He  seemed 
perfectly  frank  in  this  matter.  When 
I  told  him  my  errand  he  smiled  and 
said  *'  I  don't  know  anything  about 
that  barber's  basin.  I  had  it  here 
only  a  week.  It  came  to  me  from 
another  dealer.  The  parties  who 
bought  it  took  it  away  to  see  first  if 
it  was  what  they  wanted.  They  had 
it  several  days.  When  they  came 
back  they  bought  it  for  seven  dollars. 
I  just  sold  it  on  commission.  I  kept 
two  dollars  and  paid  five  to  the  other 
dealer.  I  don't  know  how  or  where 
108 


James  D.  Hague 

he  got  it.  He  might  tell  you.  His 
name  is  Benguiat.  He  is  a  dealer  in 
rugs,  very  expensive  ones,  and  he 
buys  all  sorts  of  curiosities  and  has  a 
large  collection,  worth  many  thou- 
sands of  dollars.  Here  is  his  address. 
You  better  see  him." 

This  seemed  to  confirm  the  sus- 
picion that  some  person  had  taken 
the  basin  from  Cutter's  lodging  after 
his  departure,  and  sold  it  to  a  known 
buyer  of  curiosities. 

Next  day  I  called  at  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Benguiats,  Hadji  Eph- 
raim  and  Mordecai,  father  and  son, 
dealers  in  rugs,  curios  and  antiques, 
belonging  to  a  family  of  famous  col- 
lectors well  known  not  only  at  San 
Francisco  but  in  New  York,  Lon- 
don, Paris  and  the  Orient.  I  found 
Mordecai,  the  son,  alone,  who  also 
smiled  when  I  mentioned  my  errand. 
He  said,  '*  I  can  tell  you  all  about 
the  barber's  basin  I  sold  to  Joe  Stern 
109 


Don  Horacio 

(the  pawnbroker),  but  I  don't  know 
anything  about  the  basin  that  be- 
longed to  the  old  gentleman  who 
died  here  awhile  ago.  My  basin  was 
not  that  basin.  My  father  brought 
my  basin  from  Smyrna  a  few  months 
ago.  He  bought  it  there  for  me, 
packed  it  with  other  things  in  a  box 
which  I  myself  unpacked  here.  I 
have  had  it  in  my  room  at  home 
ever  since  it  came  until  I  let  Stern 
have  it." 

**  How  did  you  come  to  let  Stern 
have  it?" 

"  I  was  in  his  place  one  day,  a  lit- 
tle while  ago,  when,  knowing  me  to 
be  a  buyer  of  curiosities,  he  said  that 
he  was  looking  for  a  Spanish  barber's 
brass  basin  that  had  disappeared  some 
time  before  and  was  now  wanted  and 
advertised  for  by  friends  of  the  owner, 
who  had  died.  He  thought  I  might 
have  bought  it  from  some  one  who 
had  offered  it  as  a  curiosity.     I  told 


James  D.  Hague 

him  I  had  never  heard  of  the  basin 
he  spoke  of,  but  that  I  had  one  like 
it,  which  he  might  have  if  it  would 
answer  the  purpose.  I  told  him  if 
he  could  sell  it  for  seven  dollars  he 
might  make  two  on  it.  My  father 
bought  it  in  Smyrna  for  half  a  dollar. 
Stern  said  he  would  show  it  to  the 
parties  who  were  looking  for  the 
other  basin  and  sell  it  to  them  if 
they  wanted  it.  It  was  sent,  on  ap- 
proval, to  see  if  it  would  do,  and  the 
parties  bought  it  for  seven  dollars. 
I  made  no  pretence  that  my  basin 
was  the  missing  one,  which  it  could 
not  possibly  be  if  that  is  made  of 
brass,  because  mine  is  made  of  cop- 
per ;  and  it  is  absolutely  certain  that 
my  basin  came  from  Smyrna." 

Further  conference  with  the  detec- 
tive brought  out  the  fact  that  he  had 
not  learned  from  the  pawnbroker,  at 
the  time  of  purchase,  the  name  of  the 
*'  other   dealer,"  whom  he  then  still 


Don  Horacio 

supposed  to  be  some  mysterious  per- 
son, concerning  whom  no  questions 
were  to  be  asked,  and  it  was  not  un- 
til after  the  basin  had  been  mistak- 
enly identified,  paid  for  and  sent  to 
New  York,  that  he  heard  Benguiat's 
story,  the  truth  of  which  he  does  not 
question  in  any  particular. 

Mordecai  earnestly  assured  me  that 
if  he  had  known  the  buyer  s  purpose, 
he  would  have  gladly  given  his  basin 
when  he  sold  it,  through  the  pawn- 
broker, for  seven  dollars ;  but  it  is 
obvious  that  in  such  case  the  buyer 
would  also  have  known  that  Morde- 
cai's  basin  was  not  the  missing  one 
and,  for  that  reason,  he  would  not 
have  wanted  it. 

It  also  became  evident  that  a  bar- 
ber's basin  is  not  such  a  unique 
curiosity  as  Don  Horacio's  friends 
supposed  when  they  made  their  mis- 
taken identification  in  the  firm  belief 


112 


James  D.  Hague 

that  no  other  basin  Hke  the  missing 
one  could  possibly  be  found  in  Cali- 
fornia. On  the  contrary,  not  less  than 
thirteen  such  basins  were  declared  or  \ 
reported  as  extant  in  the  near  neigh- 
borhood. One  well-known  dealer  in 
bric-a-brac,  when  interviewed  by  tele- 
phone, responded  that  he  had  half 
a  dozen  then  in  stock,  lately  brought 
up  from  Mexico. 

"  What  do  you  sell  them  for  ?  "  was 
asked. 

**  Three  and  a  half,"  he  replied. 

'*  Yes,  but  for  what  purpose  ?  What 
are  they  used  for  ?  " 

"  Oh,  anything  you  like  —  gener- 
ally to  put  flowers  in." 

When  these  facts  became  known 
to  the  friends  who,  at  my  request, 
had  taken  so  much  trouble  to  seek 
the  missing  "helmet"  of  Don  Ho- 
racio,  they  were  very  sorry  that  I  had 
been  led  to  buy  another  basin  through 


113 


Don  Horacio 

their  mistake  ;  but  I  strongly  assured 
them  that  in  the  absence  of  the  genu- 
ine thing  the  mistaken  substitute 
would  be  very  acceptable,  especially 
because  it  is  quite  consistent  with  the 
spirit  of  the  original  story  that  they 
who  seek  the  **  Helmet  of  Mambrino," 
whether  in  gold  or  brass,  may  find 
the  thing  they  are  not  looking  for. 
Don  Quixote  sought  a  helmet  of  gold 
and  found  a  brazen  basin  ;  and  we, 
seeking  brass,  have  found  copper. 
Moreover,  it  is  said  that  the  en- 
chanted golden  helmet  of  Mambrino 
made  its  wearer  invisible ;  and  it 
seems  most  fit  that  the  brass  basin 
of  Don  Horacio  should  mysteriously 
vanish  with  its  departing  owner,  who 
might,  indeed,  have  wished  it  to  be 
buried  with  him. 

The  search  for  the  helmet  may  still 

go  on  ;  and  while  awaiting  the  return 

of  Don   Horacio's  elusive  basin,  we 

may  as  well,  perhaps,  adopt  for  its 

114 


James  D.  Hague 

present  substitute  the  name  suggested 
by  the  sympathetic  detective  in  his 
bill  of  sale  and  services, 

"THE  HELMET  OF  SOMBRINO." 


"5 


Clarence  King 

John  Hay 


117 


Clarence  King 

WE  sometimes,  though  most 
rarely,  meet  a  man  of  a 
nature  so  genial,  of  qualities  so 
radiant,  so  instinct  with  vitality,  that 
in  connection  with  him  the  thought 
of  mortality  seems  incongruous. 
Such  men  appear  as  exempt  from 
the  ordinary  lethal  fate  of  the  rest 
of  us  as  the  ''happy  gods"  of  the 
Greek  poets.  They  are  not  neces- 
sarily fortunate  or  prosperous,  but 
whatever  their  luck  or  their  accidents 
they  seem  as  independent  of  them 
as  actors  are  of  their  momentary 
disguises.  The  law  of  their  nature 
is  to  be  radiant ;  clouds  are  to  them 
a  transient  and  negligible  condition. 
While  they  live  they  are  surrounded 
by  an  atmosphere  of  universal  regard 
119 


Clarence  King 

and  admiration,  and  when  the  end 
comes,  though  the  mourning  of  their 
friends  is  deep  and  sincere,  it  is 
tinged  with  something  exquisite  and 
splendid,  like  the  luxury  of  purple 
and  gold  that  attends  the  close  of 
a  troubled  and  electric  day. 

Such  a  man  was  Clarence  King. 
While  he  lived,  it  was  our  habit  to 
believe  that  no  real  evil  could  be- 
fall him  ;  and  now  that  he  is  dead, — 
although  we  know  we  have  lost 
something  from  life  which  made  it 
especially  precious  and  desirable,  yet 
there  remains  a  souvenir  so  delight- 
ful, so  filled  with  tenderness  and 
inspiration,  that  there  are  few  pleas- 
ures the  world  contains  so  valuable 
as  his  memory  in  the  hearts  of  his 
friends. 

He  possessed  to  an  extraordinary 
degree  the  power  of  attracting  and 
attaching  to  himself  friends  of  every 
sort   and   condition.      The   cowboys 


In  John  Hay's  Library 


John  Hay 

and  packers  of  the  plains  and  the 
hills ;  the  employes  of  railroads  and 
hotels  ;  men  of  science  and  men 
of  commerce ;  the  Senate  and  the 
clergy  —  in  all  these  ways  of  life 
his  friends  were  numerous  and  de- 
voted, bound  to  him  by  a  singular 
sympathy  and  mutual  comprehen- 
sion. When  in  middle  life  —  if  we 
may  use  this  expression  in  reference 
to  one  who  was  always  young  —  he 
went  to  Europe,  he  continued  the 
same  facile  conquest  of  hearts.  In 
this  he  was  aided  by  a  remarkable 
ease  in  acquiring  a  colloquial  com- 
mand of  languages.  Having  occa- 
sion to  go  to  Mexico,  he  put  in  his 
pocket  a  small  Spanish  Dictionary 
and  without  the  aid  of  a  grammar 
got  by  heart  some  thousand  nouns 
and  verbs  in  the  infinitive,  so  that 
on  arriving  at  Guaymas  he  was 
master  of  a  highly  effective  and 
picturesque  jargon  which  delighted 
123 


Clarence  King 

the  Mexicans  and  carried  him  tri- 
umphantly to  the  mines  of  Culiacan. 
Afterwards  he  acquired  a  correct  and 
grammatical  knowledge  of  the  Cas- 
tilian.  It  was  the  same  in  France. 
He  had  read  French  from  child- 
hood, but  had  never  spoken  it.  On 
arriving  in  Paris,  where  he  was  con- 
ducting some  important  business, 
he  did  not  pause  to  gain  famil- 
iarity with  the  spoken  idiom.  He 
attacked  it  with  the  energy  of  a 
cavalry  charge,  and  though  at  first 
he  made  havoc  of  genders,  moods 
and  tenses,  he  took  it  as  we  are  told 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  taken, 
by  violence.  In  a  few  weeks  he  was 
speaking  the  language  with  perfect 
ease,  and  was  an  equally  welcome 
guest  in  financial,  artistic  and  literary 
circles.  In  England  nothing  de- 
scribes his  success  but  the  well-worn 
phrase  of  Dickens.  He  was  **  the 
delight  of  the  nobility  and  gentry" 
124 


John  Hay 

and  not  of  them  only,  but  he  made 
friends  also  in  Whitechapel  and 
Soho,  and  even  to  some  in  the  sub- 
merged fraction,  the  most  wretched 
derelicts  of  civilization,  he  brought 
the  ineffable  light  of  his  keen  com- 
prehension and  generous  sympathy. 
I  introduced  him  once  to  a  woman  of 
eminent  distinction,  one  of  the  first 
writers  of  our  time.  After  he  had 
gone,  she  said :  **  I  understand  now 
the  secret  of  his  charm.  It  is  his 
kindness." 

It  is  not  for  me  to  speak  of  his  com- 
manding place  in  the  world  of  science: 
his  associates  and  colleagues  will 
keep  that  phase  of  his  life  in  remem- 
brance. I  think  his  reputation  as  a 
great  physicist  suffered  somewhat 
from  the  dazzling  attractiveness  of 
his  personality.  It  was  hard  to  re- 
member that  this  polished  trifler,  this 
exquisite  wit,  who  diffused  over  every 
conversation  in  which  he  was  engaged 
125 


Clarence  King 

an  iridescent  mist  of  epigram  and  per- 
siflage, was  one  of  the  greatest  savants 
of  his  time.  It  was  hard  to  take  seri- 
ously a  man  who  was  so  deliciously 
agreeable.  Yet  his  work  on  System- 
atic Geology  is  a  masterpiece  of  prac- 
tical and  ordered  learning,  and  his 
treatise  on  The  Age  of  the  Earth  has 
been  accepted  as  the  profoundest  and 
most  authoritative  utterance  on  the 
subject  yet  made. 

If  he  had  given  himself  to  litera- 
ture, he  would  have  been  a  great 
writer.  The  range  of  his  knowledge, 
both  of  man  and  nature,  was  enor- 
mous ;  his  sympathy  was  universal ; 
his  mastery  of  the  word,  his  power 
of  phrase,  was  almost  unlimited. 
His  literary  product  is  considerable 
and  will  keep  his  name  alive ;  but  it 
bears  no  appreciable  proportion  to 
the  literary  treasures  he  squandered 
in  his  daily  and  nightly  conversation. 
I  recall  with  the  sharpest  regret  of 
126 


John  Hay 

my  own  incapacity  of  memory  the 
evenings  by  my  fireside,  when  he 
poured  out  in  inexhaustible  profusion 
his  stores  of  fancy  and  invention. 
There  were  scores  of  short  stories 
full  of  color  and  life,  sketches  of  thrill- 
ing adventure,  not  less  than  half  a 
dozen  complete  novels,  boldly  planned 
and  brilliantly  wrought  out, — all  ready 
for  the  type  or  the  pen  ;  which  now — 
an  infinite  pity  ! —  are  only  of  the  stuff 
that  dreams  are  made  of. 

Few  men  had  so  quick  and  so  sure 
an  eye  for  art.  In  that  first  visit  to 
Europe,  to  which  I  have  alluded,  he 
seemed  like  one  to  whom  all  the  scenes 
he  visited  had  been  familiar  in  some 
antecedent  state.  His  time  was  lim- 
ited, and  his  pace,  therefore,  amaz- 
ingly rapid.  He  swept  through  Spain 
like  a  breeze.  He  had  apparently  no 
preferences.  In  the  space  of  a  few 
weeks,  he  covered  the  whole  field  ;  he 
knew  the  masterpieces  of  classic  and 

127 


Clarence  King 

modern  painting ;  he  was  familiar 
with  the  syncopated  melodies  of  Cuba 
and  Malaga  and  Andalusia ;  he  was 
an  aficionado  in  fans,  embroideries 
and  bronzes.  Nobody  has  felt  more 
keenly  the  melancholy  charm  of  Cas- 
tile ;  the  proof  is  in  that  exquisite 
idyll  of  the  Helmet  of  Mambrino. 
Fastidious  as  he  was,  he  was  yet 
easily  pleased  by  whatever  was  natu- 
ral and  genuine.  I  remember  his 
horror  —  in  the  midst  of  his  enthu- 
siasm over  Spain  —  at  meeting  an 
eminent  man  of  letters  from  New 
England  who  had  found  nothing  in 
the  Peninsula  to  suit  him,  and  who 
wound  up  by  expressing  his  disgust 
that  "  from  Salamanca  to  Cadiz  you 
could  not  get  a  fishball." 

All  over  Europe  he  scampered  with 
the  same  vertiginous  speed,  and  the 
same  serene  and  genial  appearance 
of  leisure,  and  perfect  satisfaction 
and  delight  with  all  he  saw.  The 
128 


John  Hay- 
art  of  Holland  was  as  enchanting  to 
him  as  that  of  Spain  and  Italy.  His 
admiration  of  the  great  men  of  the 
past  never  rendered  him  unjust  to 
the  men  of  the  present.  His  wide 
sympathies  comprehended  Velasquez 
and  Fortuny  in  a  kindred  apprecia- 
tion. He  became  at  sight  the  friend 
of  Mesdag  and  Israels.  I  took  him 
to  the  studio  of  Gustave  Dore,  and 
in  five  minutes  they  were  brothers 
and  were  planning  an  excursion  to 
Arizona  to  sketch  the  war  dances  of 
the  Apaches.  A  few  days  later  the 
robust  Alsatian,  who  seemed  built  to 
last  a  hundred  years,  was  dead,  stricken 
down  by  the  terrible  pneumonia  of 
those  years. 

In  England  while  as  I  have  said 
his  success  was  universal  with  all 
classes,  his  closest  intimacies  were 
with  men  who  were  occupied  with 
the  things  of  the  spirit  Ruskin  took 
him  to  his  heart,  entertained  him  at 

9 

129 


Clarence  King 

Conlston,  and  offered  him  his  choice 
of  his  two  greatest  water-colors  by 
Turner.  ''  One  good  Turner,"  said 
King,  **  deserves  another,"  and  took 
both. 

Few  men  ever  can  have  lived  who 
loved  knowingly  and  ardently  so  many 
things.  All  the  arts  gave  him  joy; 
his  mind  was  hospitable  to  every  in- 
tellectual delight,  the  simplest  as  well 
as  the  most  complex.  In  music  he 
enjoyed  Beethoven  and  the  latest 
rag-time  ;  in  painting  he  revelled  in 
the  masterpieces  of  all  the  schools ; 
in  poetry  his  taste  was  as  keen  as  it 
was  catholic  ;  in  literature  he  liked  all 
styles  except  the  tiresome  ;  for  years 
he  read  a  chapter  of  higher  mathe- 
matics every  night  before  going  to 
bed.  He  had  the  passionate  love 
of  nature  which  only  the  highest 
culture  gives  —  the  sky,  the  rock,  and 
the  river  spoke  to  him  as  familiar 
friends. 

130 


John  Hay 

I  imagine  that  in  comparing  our 
impressions  of  him,  the  thought  which 
comes  uppermost  in  the  minds  of  all 
of  us,  is  that  Clarence  King  resembled 
no  one  else  whom  we  have  ever 
known.  The  rest  of  our  friends  we 
divide  into  classes  ;  King  belonged 
to  a  class  of  his  own.  He  was  inimita- 
ble in  many  ways  :  in  his  inexhausti- 
ble fund  of  wise  and  witty  speech  ; 
in  his  learning,  about  which  his  mar- 
vellous humor  played  like  summer 
lightning  over  far  horizons  ;  in  his 
quick  and  intelligent  sympathy  which 
saw  the  good  and  the  amusing  in  the 
most  unpromising  subjects ;  in  the 
ease  and  the  airy  lightness  with  which 
he  scattered  his  jewelled  phrases ;  but 
above  all  in  his  astonishing  power  of 
diffusing  happiness  wherever  he  went. 
Years  ago,  in  a  well-known  drawing- 
room  in  Washington,  when  we  were 
mourning  his  departure  from  the 
Capital,  one  of  his  friends  expressed 
131 


Clarence  King 

the  opinion  of  all  when  he  said,  **  It 
is  strange  that  the  Creator,  when  it 
would  have  been  so  easy  to  make 
more  Kings,  should  have  made  only 
one." 


132 


Meetings    with    King 

William   Dean   Howells 


133 


Meetings  with  Clarence   King 

THOSE  who  knew  Clarence  King 
better  than  I  must  have  more 
varied  impressions  of  him,  for  no  one 
presents  at  all  times  the  same  moral 
and  mental  aspect  to  his  familiar  ac- 
quaintance, though  he  is  apt  to  wear 
it  to  such  as  have  no  claim  to  his  in- 
timacy. For  his  intimates  his  moods 
vary  and  his  looks,  while  he  shows 
one  physiognomy  to  those  standing 
farther  from  him,  whatever  his  mood 
may  be.  I  say  this  not  to  establish  a 
truism,  but  to  let  the  reader  under- 
stand how  little  right  I  should  have, 
if  I  were  of  a  mind  to  urge  any,  to 
speak  of  King  with  authority,  or  any 
sort  of  finality.  What  I  could  chiefly 
wish  besides  would  be  to  impart  the 
sense  of  a  certain  sunny  gayety  in 
135 


Meetings  with  King 

him  which  was  the  repeated  effect  of 
all  our  meetings,  and  which  I  still 
have  from  every  portrait  of  him. 

Our  first  meeting  was  in  the  proof- 
reader's room  of  the  old  University 
Press  at  Cambridge,  where  one  was 
apt  to  meet  all  sorts  of  casual  and 
habitual  literary  celebrities.  He  was 
then  a  young  man  well  under  the 
thirties,  whose  blondness  was  affirmed 
rather  by  his  blithe  blue  eyes  and 
fresh  tint  than  by  the  light  hair  which 
was  cropped  close  on  the  head  where 
it  early  grew  sparser  and  sparser. 
He  was  of  a  slightness  which  his  fig- 
ure did  not  afterwards  keep,  and  he 
was  altogether  of  a  very  charmingly 
boyish  presence,  heightened  in  effect 
by  his  interest  in  explaining  the  pith 
hat  which  he  had  by  him  on  the  desk 
where  he  was  reading  the  proofs  of 
one  of  his  papers  on  Mountaineering 
in  the  Sierra  Nevada.  The  time  was 
the  hot  heart  of  the  Cambridge  sum- 
136 


King  at  age  of  27 


William  Dean  Howells 

mer,  when  a  pith  hat  was  as  desirable 
as  in  the  California  heats  which  he 
described  in  their  relation  to  it.  He 
advised  one  in  my  own  case,  but  he 
met  me  even  more  sympathetically 
on  the  ground  of  literature,  where 
he  professed  to  envy  me  my  associa- 
tions. 

I  was  then  a  very  ardent  young 
assistant  editor,  and  I  shared  all  my 
chiefs  admiration  of  those  vivid  and 
graphic  papers  of  King's  which  he 
had  got  for  the  Atlantic  Monthly, 
In  my  perfectly  contented  ignorance 
of  every  intellectual  or  moral  interest 
outside  of  literature,  I  regarded  the 
brilliant  and  beaming  creature  before 
me  simply  as  a  promise  of  more  and 
more  literature  of  the  vivid  and  gra- 
phic kind,  and  of  a  peculiar  quality 
unequaled  in  the  performances  of 
the  new  California  school  with  which 
I  classed  him.  Of  his  scientific  value, 
then  already  fully  attested,  I  had  no 
139 


Meetings  with  King 

just  conception  ;  it  was  a  trait  the 
more  in  the  character  of  a  young  au- 
thor who  afforded  to  have  it  in  a  mag- 
nificent superfluity  along  with  his 
artistic  gifts.  It  made  him  more  pic- 
turesque, though  it  could  not  make 
him  more  pictorial  than  he  was. 

Later,  I  found  that  it  had  rather 
the  first  place  in  his  self-estimate,  and 
he  amused  himself  in  meeting  my 
reproaches  for  not  having  done  some- 
thing more  in  literature  with  the  an- 
swer that  he  was  writing  a  book  which 
just  three  people  in  the  United  States 
would  care  to  read.  This  reply  may 
have  been  first  made  by  letter  in  re- 
sponse to  my  editorial  entreaties  for 
more  papers  like  the  Mountaineering 
series,  for  the  magazine  having  fallen 
solely  to  me,  I  knew  I  could  not  do 
better  for  it.  Perhaps,  however,  it 
may  have  been  personally  urged  at 
my  second  meeting  with  him,  which 
was  at  Washington,  where  he  was 
140 


William  Dean  Howells 

pretending  to  some  scientific  place 
in  the  government,  in  the  intervals  of 
actual  scientific  work  in  the  West, 
and  was  putting  lightly  by  all  tra- 
ditions of  his  literary  achievement. 
We  met  at  the  White  House,  to  the 
occupant  of  which,  in  those  pleasant 
eighteen-seventies  when  everybody 
was  reasonably  young,  I  had  been 
the  means  of  introducing  him  with 
an  enthusiasm  which  he  deprecated 
as  *'  din." 

He  was  above  everything  indifferent 
to  literary  repute.  He  would  have 
preferred  not  to  own  the  things  he 
wrote,  and  kept  only  for  his  reward 
the  aesthetic  delight  he  had  in  doing 
them.  I  think  he  had  the  greatest 
delight  in  them  ;  a  man  who  could  so 
fit  incident  and  character  with  phrases, 
must  have  had  ;  and  I  believe  that  he 
always  vaguely  meant  to  write  a  great 
work  of  fiction,  though  I  do  not  be- 
lieve he  would  ever  have  done  it.  He 
141 


Meetings  with  King 

was  supposed  to  have  by  him  the 
beginning  of  a  novel,  and  perhaps  he 
had,  but  it  was  rather  something  to 
bluff  his  inquiring  literary  friends 
with,  to  dream  over  and  fancy  finish- 
ing, than  ever  really  to  expect  or 
intend  finishing. 

There  was  doubtless  something  in 
the  exactness  of  science  which  formed 
a  pull  on  his  poetic  nature  strong 
enough  to  draw  him  to  the  perform- 
ance from  which  the  vagueness  of 
aesthetic  motives  and  impulses  relaxed 
him.  It  was  easy  to  put  these  off 
with  the  self-promise  of  fulfilment 
some  other  time  when  he  should  feel 
more  like  it ;  but  with  a  scientific  prob- 
lem or  task  before  him  he  had  to  act 
promptly.  In  life,  I  believe,  he  was 
much  controlled  by  what  we  may  call 
the  literary  side  of  him. 

I  next  met  him  in  London  in  the 
crucial  moment  when  he  was  trying 
to  go  down  to  a  friend's  country 
142 


William  Dean  Howells 

house  in  Scotland,  and  buying  his 
railroad  ticket  day  after  day,  and  then 
telegraphing  his  host  that  he  would 
come  the  next  day.  He  was  delight- 
ful, in  this,  at  least  to  the  witness,  and 
he  was  delightful  in  all  his  talk  about 
London,  from  which  he  had  been 
long  endeavoring  to  tear  himself  for 
a  more  protracted  period  with  the 
same  impossibility  he  found  in  a  brief 
absence.  He  told,  with  the  sunnily 
smiling  eyes  of  our  interviews  at 
the  University  Press  and  the  White 
House,  of  the  fascination  London  had 
for  him,  in  the  mirky  purlieus  of  the 
poorest,  where  you  could  buy  for  a 
penny  a  slice  of  wonderful  pie  which 
included  the  courses  of  a  whole  dinner 
in  its  stratification,  not  less  than  in 
the  circles  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  set, 
where  the  young  archworldlings  went 
ingenuously  about  showing  their  vac- 
cinations to  one  another,  and  ex- 
changing boyish  congratulations  and 
143 


Meetings  with  King 

condolences.  He  was  having  the 
good  time  which  he  seemed  always  to 
carry  with  him,  and  to  one  so  ignorant 
of  the  English  as  myself  he  might 
well  have  appeared  intelligently  criti- 
cal, though  not  censorious,  of  them. 
They  amused  him,  by  their  novelty  of 
type  and  their  frank  naturalness,  in 
the  same  degree  if  not  the  same  kind 
as  the  wild  or  wilding  children  of  the 
Pacific  Slope  and  of  the  intervening 
alkaline  regions.  No  American  of  his 
intellectual  gifts  and  wide  human 
experience  ever  got  more,  I  should 
think,  of  the  good  of  a  sojourn  among 
the  English,  which  was  finally  ex- 
tended almost  to  the  despair  of  the 
friends  wishing  him  home  again.  It 
was  charming  to  hear  his  philosophy 
of  them,  as  shrewd  and  penetrating 
as  it  was  humorous  and  unfinal. 

It  was  early  in  his  visit,  I  believe, 
that  I  met  him  at  a  dinner,  given  by 
an  American  publisher,  which  was  re- 
144 


William  Dean  Howells 

markable  for  having  at  it,  in  the  heart 
of  London,  only  one  Englishman,  and 
he  by  birth  a  foreigner.  The  rest  of 
us  were  Americans,  and  King  surely 
the  most  American  of  all  in  a  certain 
fine  expansiveness  of  good  fellow- 
ship. He  had  been  in  Spain,  and 
Southern  Europe  generally,  and  had 
come  up  by  way  of  Paris,  where  he 
had  stopped  and  bought  pictures  — 
several  Fortuny  watercolors  among 
others.  "Ah,"  I  said,  hearing  his 
joyous  brags  of  their  beauty,  ''what 
a  fortunate  man,  to  own  Fortunys  ! " 
"  Why,  I  will  give  you  one,"  he  re- 
turned ;  and  I  thought  that  a  good 
bluff,  and  he  let  me  laugh.  But  the 
next  morning  the  Fortuny  showed 
itself  at  my  lodgings,  and  that  is  how 
I  am  still  able  to  say  to  people, 
'*  Have  you  seen  my  Fortuny  ?  Of 
course, I  diOViX. buy  Fortunys;  Clarence 
King  gave  it  me,"  and  then  tell  when 
and  how. 

145 


/ 


Meetings  with  King 

I  never  can  tell  why,  except  that  it 
was  from  a  princely  impulse  which 
he  must  often  have  indulged  towards 
others  no  more  worthy  its  effect  than 
I.  He  had  much  of  the  Arabian 
Nights  in  him,  and  liked  to  shine  in 
a  surprising  munificence,  if  he  could 
choose  its  object ;  and  I  suppose  he 
enjoyed  launching  such  a  challenge 
at  my  imagination.  If  he  might  no 
longer  write  poet  he  could  live  poet, 
and  now  and  again  do  a  thing  that 
was  noble  literature.  He  was  not 
rich,  as  rich  men  go,  and  that  was 
why  he  could  afford  pleasures  that 
rich  men,  as  they  go,  cannot  or  will 
not  permit  themselves.  His  generos- 
ity was  not  merely  in  gifts  that  could 
not  wax  poor  through  any  after  un- 
kindness  of  his,  but  in  recognitions 
that  go  farther  yet  with  one  in  the 
numerous  solitude  where  an  author  is 
always  apt  to  find  himself.  His  rec- 
ognition was  more  than  a  nod ;  it 
146 


William  Dean  Howells 

was  a  stretto  di  mano,  something  bor- 
dering on  an  embrace  in  its  cordial 
properties,  if  your  current  story  had 
the  good  luck  to  please  his  good 
taste.  Then  he  would  write  not  only 
to  say  so,  but  to  say  why,  with  close, 
yet  clear  reasons,  in  which  the  most 
evasive,  the  most  elusive  of  acquaint- 
ance became  the  most  open  and  im- 
mediate of  friends.  One  such  letter 
of  his  goes  with  that  Fortuny  of  his, 
which  it  outvalues  in  very  intrinsic 
qualities. 

If  I  seem  to  be  celebrating  his 
friendship  as  in  unusual  sort  an  inti- 
macy, let  me  say  again  that  it  never 
was.  It  was  something  that  could  be 
resumed  wherever  it  was  left,  with  a 
sense  of  common  ground  under  the 
feet,  in  which  there  could  be  no  mis- 
understanding. 

There  was  somewhere  a  breakfast 
before  or  in  between  our  London 
meeting  and  the  next,  but  I  cannot 
147 


Meetings  with  King 

securely  date  it,  though  a  vivid  sense 
remains  from  it  of  King's  sweet  satis- 
faction in  bringing  two  persons  to- 
gether who  tasted  the  pleasure  he 
meant  in  making  them  acquainted. 
It  might  have  been  then  that  he 
talked  of  some  of  the  people  in  his 
Western  sketches,  and  especially  of 
that  frontier  artist  with  the  New 
York  ambitions  and  longings,  whose 
likeness  he  had  caught  but  too  per- 
fectly, and  who  would  have  been 
willing  to  **  take  it  out  of  him,"  if  he 
had  not  been  disarmed  by  King's 
frank  bonhomie  when  they  met.  He 
liked  and  valued  all  those  grotesque 
and  rude  figures,  these  strong  and 
fibrous  human  textures  of  the  West, 
but  he  had  a  sense  as  subtle  as  its 
own  of  the  silken  Latin  and  meridi- 
onal temperament,  and  it  was  measur- 
ably to  imagine  Cuba  to  hear  him 
tell  of  his  Cuban  cousins  and  ac- 
quaintance, who  flashed  and  glistened 
148 


William  Dean  Howells 

and  darkled  in  his  talk  as  they  must 
have  done  in  life. 

But  I  am  leaving  him  standing 
where  I  next  met  him,  in  Boston 
Common,  namely,  two  years  after  our 
parting  in  London.  It  was  pending 
that  presidential  election  of  1884, 
when  friends  hardly  knew  where  to 
find  each  other,  or  knew  whether  they 
were  quite  friends  when  they  did  so. 
But  we  instantly  and  instinctively 
came  together  on  Blaine,  for  whom 
we  were  going  to  vote,  in  a  wide 
literary  and  social  isolation,  because 
*'  in  our  bones "  we  felt  it  the  right 
thing,  rather  than  from  any  reasons 
better  than  those  of  our  friends  who 
were  going  to  vote  against  him.  King 
had  a  personal  kindness  to  remember 
of  him,  such  as  his  leaving  a  sick  bed 
to  come  to  the  Senate  and  help 
through  a  bill  in  which  King  was  in- 
terested, and  "He  stands  by  his 
friends,"  he  said  with  that  fine  close 

149 


Meetings  with  King 

smile  of  his,  which  impHed  a  gust  for 
the  quaHty  the  phrase  had  taken  from 
its  common  politicianal  use. 

It  was  this  smile  which  keeps  his 
image  before  me  as  I  write,  which  I 
find  delicately  intimated  in  Mr.  How- 
land's  portrait  of  him — an  admirable 
likeness,  I  think — and  which  implied 
his  gentleness  and  sweetness  together 
with  a  kindly  irony  not  unseldom 
going  with  such  traits.  The  smile 
broadened  as  we  left  the  public  in- 
terest and  looked  at  each  other,  to 
find  that  we  had  no  more  fallen  away 
physically  than  politically.  I  asked 
if  there  were  anything  to  be  done 
about  that  constancy  of  weight,  and 
he  said  "  No.  The  fact  is  we  like  to 
overeat,"  in  all  philosophical  if  not 
scientific  answer  to  the  anti-obesity 
hopes  which  still  lure  and  mock  con- 
fiding middle  age. 

He  had,  as  I  remember  him,  a 
pleasure  in  the  joys  of  the  table  as 
150 


William  Dean  Howells 

generous  as  his  other  pleasures,  but 
depersonalized  by  the  interest  he  took 
in  certain  branches  of  the  culinary- 
technique.  We  next  met  at  dinner 
in  New  York  over  a  very  specific 
beef-steak,  in  company  with  a  poet 
now  more  venerable  but  not  yet  too 
old  to  recall  his  sympathy  with  King's 
zeal  in  concurrently  compiling  a  gravy 
of  which  he  had  the  knowledge  and 
inspiration,  while  the  talk  went  on  of 
things  both  humane  and  literary,  till 
the  steak  came  up  to  have  that  won- 
derful sauce  poured  over  it.  King 
spoke  then  of  that  romance  of  his, 
begun  as  ever,  but  somewhat  more 
advanced,  he  owned,  though  he  owned 
the  fact  cryptically,  as  if  he  might  still 
never  suffer  the  cypher  of  its  secret 
to  be  interpreted  in  mortal  print.  He 
talked  also  of  things  millennial,  of 
which  the  air  was  then  momentarily 
full,  and  by  which  his  heart  was 
moved.  He  confessed  a  feeling  for 
151 


Meetings  with  King 

those  who  do  the  hard  work  of  the 
world,  that  others  may  enjoy  their 
ease,  so  great  that  as  he  further  con- 
fessed, he  had  stayed  most  of  that 
summer  in  town  not  to  let  an  old 
retainer  of  his  be  left  friendless 
there  in  sickness. 

It  was  not  a  boast  of  his  goodness, 
and  I  suspect  that  he  did  not  like 
bringing  up  very  serious  things  in  a 
casual  talk  lest  they  should  be  too 
serious.  The  sad  side  of  life  he  would 
keep  turned  inward,  or  at  least  he  did 
to  my  knowledge.  But  there  was  yet 
one  more  feast  at  which  we  foregath- 
ered where  the  shades  of  melancholy 
and  pathetic  experience  hovered  too 
palpably  to  be  dispersed  by  the  gayety 
of  his  talk,  subsiding  oftener  into  the 
easier  gayety  of  that  most  winning 
smile  of  his. 

I  did  not  see  him  again,  but  in  the 
church  where  the  words  of  farewell 
were  said  over  him,  coffined  under 
152 


William  Dean  Howells 

the  chilly  flowers,  I  had  the  sense  of 
his  smiling  presence,  with  a  sort  of 
grief,  which  I  shall  not  be  able  to  ex- 
plain, for  the  unfitness  of  the  intense 
cold  of  the  day,  and  of  the  piercing 
bleakness  of  the  sunshine  from  which 
we  had  escaped,  and  into  which  we 
issued  and  suffered  again  when  the 
words  were  all  said.  I  promised  my- 
self then  to  try  sometime  and  say 
about  him  the  things  that  were  in  my 
heart,  but  these  "  trivial  fond  records  " 
are  not  they,  and  I  doubt  if  I  could 
ever  get  them  out.  They  concern 
what  is  deepest  in  me  if  not  in  him, 
for  they  touch  that  old,  great,  high 
affair  of  literature,  and  his  own  contri- 
bution to  the  vocabulary  of  his  race 
and  place. 

What  he  could  do  was  proven  in 
the  Mountaineering  in  the  Sierra 
Nevada  papers,  which  will  remain  his 
monument,  and  what  he  might  fur- 
ther have  done  is  attested  in  that 
153 


Meetings  with  King 

sketcli  of  Spanish  character  and  cir- 
cumstance, Mambrind s  Helmet,  which 
is  almost  as  Httle  companioned  as  it 
is  paralleled.  The  power  of  uniting 
himself  by  sympathy  with  an  alien 
life  while  remaining  humorously  and 
critically  detached  from  it,  which  he 
evinced  in  this  and  the  earlier  studies, 
approved  him  to  my  thinking  an  im- 
aginative talent  of  the  first  potential- 
ity ;  and  I  have  to  accuse  myself  of 
using  the  wrong  word  in  calling  that 
or  any  life  alien  to  him.  As  an  artist, 
as  a  realistic  observer,  every  kind  of 
life  appealed  to  him  for  report ;  and 
he  was  one  with  it,  if  I  may  trust  my 
reading  of  his  work,  and  my  conjec- 
ture of  his  nature.  He  was  first  of  all 
most  tolerant,  which  is  the  wisest  and 
best  thing  any  man  can  be  ;  but  he 
was  not  trammeled  by  his  kindness 
in  any  helpless  complicity.  He  liked 
the  thing  he  laughed  at,  and  yet  he 
laughed,  for  he  was  both  humorous 
154 


William  Dean  Howells 

arid  humane  ;  and  could  lose  his  poise 
no  more  in  the  presence  of  the  gro- 
tesque than  in  the  presence  of  the 
beautiful.  He  felt,  or  so  his  literature 
says  to  me,  his  unity  with  all  men. 
From  some  men,  from  most,  he  was 
of  course  intellectually  parted  by  im- 
mense distances  of  culture,  but  essen- 
tially he  was  the  neighbor  of  mankind. 
He  knew  the  ''  world  "  of  his  time  far 
beyond  all  other  American  literary 
men  save  one,  but  he  was  not  awed 
by  it,  or  estranged  by  it  from  his  fel- 
low-beings outside  of  it.  The  greater 
the  pity,  therefore,  that  he  could  not 
have  had  the  time  or  the  will  to  write 
the  American  novel  which  we  are  so 
persistently  expecting  both  of  the  fit 
and  the  unfit ;  but  it  is  not  essential 
to  his  remembrance  as  an  American 
author  that  he  should  have  done  so. 
He  has  brilliantly  fixed  forever  a 
phase  of  the  Great  West  already  van- 
ished from  actuality  ;  in  one  glowing 
155 


Meetings  with  King 

picture  he  has  portrayed  a  subHme 
mood  of  nature,  with  all  those  varying 
moods  of  human  nature  which  best 
give  it  relief.  The  picture  is  none 
the  less  striking  for  being  of  a  pano- 
ramic virtue ;  that  is  the  American 
virtue,  as  far  as  we  have  yet  got  at  it 
in  our  literature. 


156 


King 

Henry  Adams 


157 


King 

DOZENS  of  men  in  this  Club,* 
and  hundreds  outside  of  it, 
could  give  material  for  a  little  poem 
on  the  theme,  **  How  I  first  knew 
King,"  with  a  motive  quite  as  original 
and  perhaps  more  dramatic  than  that 
of  Browning's  **  When  I  last  saw 
Waring."  Every  one  who  met  him 
thirty  years  ago  remembers  how  he 
bubbled  with  life  and  energy,  and 
how  his  talk  rippled  with  humor  and 
thought  quite  new  to  our  rather 
academic  life  in  the  East.  Traces  of 
it  still  hang  about  our  book-shelves. 
One  can  recall  the  odor  of  it,  and 
of  the  delight  it  gave  us,  by  read- 
ing a   page    of    his  Mountaineering 

*  This  paper,  presented  here  as  originally 
written,  was  intended  to  be  read  at  a  proposed 
King  Memorial  Meeting  at  the  Century  Club. 
159 


King 

in  the  Sierras,  or  by  only  open- 
ing a  volume  of  Bret  Harte.  No 
other  place  except  the  Sierras  has 
produced  in  our  time  the  same  sense 
of  freshness,  and  no  one  else  had  its 
whole  charm  except  King.  At  least,  so 
thought  most  of  those  who  knew  him. 
We  would,  at  any  time  and  always, 
have  left  the  most  agreeable  man  in 
Europe  or  America  to  go  with  him. 
We  were  his  slaves,  and  he  was  good 
to  us.  He  was  the  ideal  companion 
of  our  lives. 

Perhaps,  like  the  rest,  I  too  might 
try  my  hand  on  the  little  poem  we 
all  have  the  material  to  compose,  but 
with  your  permission  I  will  spare 
you  ;  not  so  much  because  it  might 
not  bear  comparison  with  Brown- 
ing's, for  that  would  matter  little 
since  it  is  not  for  sale  ;  but  because, 
when  I  come  to  think  about  it,  I 
fear  that  the  motive  would  cut  too 
deep  into  King's  life,  not  to  mention 
1 60 


Henry  Adams 

my  own  ;  and  because,  after  all,  the 
odor  of  youth  and  the  pine  forests  is 
a  little  sacred,  like  the  incense  of  the 
mass.  We  had  ideals  then,  ambi- 
tions, and  a  few  passions,  which 
faded  with  time,  and  are  dead,  even 
though  they  may  not  be  buried  ;  and 
his  are  not  mine  to  handle.  They 
were  as  fresh  and  exciting  as  the  air 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  the 
smell  of  the  camp-fires  in  which  we 
talked  till  the  night  grew  tired  of  us. 
All  that  had  long  vanished,  and  both 
of  us  were  elderly  and  not  very  gay 
fragments  of  the  past,  when  we  took 
our  last  vacation,  which  shall  serve 
for  a  picture  of  him,  or  the  back- 
ground of  one,  for  he  always  seemed 
to  make  his  background  alive,  and  a 
part  of  himself. 

On  the  first  day  of  January,  1894, 

I    received   the    following    letter    in 

King's    handwriting,    always   a   rare 

thing  to  receive,  and  just  then  par- 

161 


King 

ticularly  welcome.     The  letter  runs 
thus : 

' '  Bloomingdale  Asylum 
"December  31 

"  My  dear  Henry 

"  I  refrained  from  boring  you  with 
the  miseries  of  my  months  of  torture 
here,  and  I  don't  think  I  should  ever 
have  broken  the  silence  were  I  not 
at  last  convinced  that  the  progress  of 
recovery,  though  of  geological  slow- 
ness, is  really  going  to  arrive  at  a 
cure. 

**  Early  next  week  the  Doctors  are 
to  have  another  consultation  over  my 
damned  spine  (how  I  reverence  a 
polyp)  and  I  am  assured  in  advance 
that  they  will  sanction  and  even  com- 
mand my  going  somewhere  in  the 
south.  .  .  .  Everything  favoring  I 
shall  go.  South  I  must  go,  and  next 
week  is  to  be  my  last  in  this  house 
of  madness.  I  shant  like  it  so  well 
a  few  months  hence  when  Columbia 
162 


Henry  Adams 

College  moves  in  here  and  displaces 
these  open,  frank  lunatics  with  Seth 
Low  and  his  faculty  of  incurables,  so 
I  better  go  now. 

**  What  do  you  say  to  taking  the 
island  trip  with  me  ?  .  .  .  I  have 
read  up  a  little  on  the  Caribbees,  and 
if  any  trust  can  be  put  in  human 
testimony  they  must  be  splendid  for 
scenery  and  absorbing  for  geology. 
A  light  opera-bouffe  effect  is  evi- 
dently given  by  the  extremely  char- 
acteristic darkeys  with  their  chatter 
and  bandannas,  with  something  seri- 
ous and  orchestral  in  the  way  of 
gumbo  and  pepper-pot.  Rum  is  the 
agent  of  erosion,  from  all  accounts. 
Antigua  makes  a  celebrated  dish  of 
turtle,  and  grows  the  finest  pine- 
apples in  the  solar  system. 

"  You  need  have  no  fear  of  my  suf- 
fering a  recurrence  of  disability,  and 
even  if  I  do,  you  could  cut  my  ac- 
quaintance and  leave  me  to  Alex- 
163 


King 

ander  who  is  a  trained  nurse  and  a 
monument  of  medical  wisdom.  .  .  . 
Common  honesty  demands  that  I 
confess  that  I  am  likely  to  be  rather 
dull  company  for  a  little  while,  but 
in  a  few  days  I  shall  be  gay  enough. 
If  my  back  goes  up  to  the  tempera- 
ture of  melted  diabase,  and  moral 
viscosity  sets  in,  I  promise  not  to 
bore  you  with  it."     .     .     . 

You  all  remember  how  King  broke 
down  in  1893,  and  how  he  went  to 
Bloomingdale,  as  most  of  us  would 
have  liked  to  do,  to  recover  from  the 
nervous  strain  which  prostrated  the 
whole  country,  and  cost  hundreds  of 
valuable  lives  in  that  disastrous  year. 
That  all  one's  acquaintance  should 
retreat  into  asylums  seemed  at  one 
time  the  only  way  to  escape  hopeless 
ruin  and  collapse  ;  but  at  any  time 
King  might  have  written  from  any- 
where without  disturbing  the  natural 
164 


Henry  Adams 

order  of  his  unexpectedness.  We 
were  accustomed  only  to  the  unusual 
from  him.  For  my  own  part,  I  would 
always  have  joined  him,  whether  in 
an  asylum  or  out  of  it,  rather  than 
any  one  else,  and  to  that  effect  I 
must  have  written  him.  He  was  de- 
layed longer  than  he  expected  in 
New  York,  but  we  joined  company 
at  Tampa  at  last,  and  reached  Ha- 
vana together  before  the  first  of 
February. 

He  had  fitted  himself  out  for  a 
small  geological  exploration  of  the 
Windward  Islands,  but  we  soon  found 
that  the  Windward  Islands  main- 
tained a  rigid  quarantine  against 
the  Spanish  islands,  and  so  we  had 
to  give  up  the  Caribbees.  We  could 
not  stay  long  in  Havana  which  was 
perfectly  familiar  ground.  After  a 
few  days  there,  not  caring  much 
where  we  went,  we  crossed  to  Bata- 
bano,  and  took  the  coasting-steamer 
165 


King 

along  the  south  shore.  The  scenery, 
the  movement,  the  pilotage,  the  pas- 
sengers, and  the  appropriate  bull- 
fighter, with  his  circle  of  worshippers, 
quieted  our  nerves  for  a  day  or  two, 
until  we  turned  the  point  of  Cabo 
Cruz  and  ran  into  the  trade-wind, 
which  King  liked  as  little  as  I 
did,  but  which  a  good  many  of  our 
friends  were  to  enjoy  at  their  leisure 
four  years  afterwards ;  and,  in  the 
moonlight.  King  defied  it  enough  to 
prove  to  me  that  the  coast,  with  its 
volcanic  peak  Turquino,  was  to  be 
compared  for  beauty  with  no  other 
coast  in  the  world  except  that  of  Cen- 
tral America ;  and  so,  before  dawn, 
we  ran  into  the  harbor  of  Santiago. 
There,  too.  King  was  at  home  ; — 
Where  was  he  ever  a  stranger  ?  He 
seemed  quite  happy  as  we  tramped 
in  the  dark  up  the  streets,  and 
pounded  on  the  doors  of  inns  which 
would    not   open,  and   which,    when 

i66 


Henry  Adams 

they  did  open,  showed  quarters  more 
Spanish  than  I  Hked.  He  loved 
everything  Spanish,  even  the  Spanish 
inn.  That  was  his  nature.  When  he 
liked  anything,  he  liked  it  all.  One 
felt  colorless  by  his  side,  and,  what 
was  not  altogether  pleasant,  one  felt 
the  truth.  One's  energies  relaxed ; 
one  felt  oneself  a  drag  on  him.  In 
this  case  I  was  put  there  to  serve  as 
a  drag, — perhaps  even  as  a  drug, — 
and  conscience  did  not  mortify  me 
too  much  ;  but  the  relation  was  al- 
ways the  same,  and  the  nervous 
restlessness  of  1894  was,  if  anything, 
weaker  than  the  exuberant  energy  of 
1870.  He  loved  the  Spaniard  as  he 
loved  the  negro  and  the  Indian  and 
all  the  primitives,  because  they  were 
not  academic.  Above  all  he  loved 
a  paradox  —  a  thing,  he  said,  that 
alone  excused  thought.  No  one, 
in  our  time,  ever  talked  paradox  so 
brilliant. 

167 


King 

You  can  see,  therefore,  how  little 
chance  I  had  of  keeping  him  amused. 
Had  I  been  a  Cuban  negro,  it  would 
have  been  easy,  or  a  Carib  or  a  brig- 
and ;  but  unless  I  could  find  some 
way  of  reverting,  step  by  step,  through 
all  the  stages  of  human  change,  back 
to  a  pithecanthropos,  or  much  better, 
a  pithecgunai,  I  could  not  keep  King 
occupied  for  twenty-four  hours.  I 
could  not  even  handle  a  machete,  or 
herd  a  bull,  or  dance  the  culebra.  He 
had  to  get  the  priest  to  show  me 
how.  For  such  eccentric  types,  the 
little  town  of  Santiago  was  then  a 
marvellous  garden  of  survival.  No- 
where in  the  world  had  I  ever  seen 
anything  more  amusing,  and  I  thought 
it  a  Heaven-sent  harbor  for  us  two 
worn-out  craft  to  rest  in.  Four  years 
later  all  America  rang  with  the  fame 
of  Santiago,  and  especially  with  the 
name  of  Ramsden,  the  British  Consul, 
but  at  that  time  King  alone  knew 

i68 


Henry  Adams 

him,  as  he  knew  everyone ;  and  of 
course  Ramsden  loved  King,  and  re- 
ceived him  with  open  arms.  I  will 
not  stop  to  tell  you  how  kind  the 
Ramsdens  were,  for  that  has  nothing 
to  do  with  the  story,  except  that  it 
was  through  Ramsden  that  his  part- 
ner, Mr.  Brooks,  was  interested  in 
King,  and  offered  him  his  country 
house  at  Dos  Bocas.  You  may  guess 
how  eager  I  was  to  accept  the  offer. 
Of  all  havens  of  rest  for  the  old  and 
weary — of  all  bits  of  earthly  Paradise 
— Dos  Bocas  was  my  dream ;  and,  if 
I  tell  you  the  dream,  it  is  only  to 
show  what  became  of  havens  of  rest 
when  King  lighted  there. 

Many  of  you  know  Dos  Bocas,  a 
few  miles  by  the  little  railroad  from 
Santiago  to  Cristo,  near  the  top  of 
the  valley.  The  woods  come  close 
down  to  it ;  a  small  stream,  not  so 
very  common  in  Cuba,  runs  through 
it ;  and  the  trade-wind  draws  down 
169 


King 

the  valley  with  a  passion  for  the  palm 
trees  such  as  only  tropic  winds  feel. 
Dos  Bocas  was  far  more  Spanish 
than  Spain,  and  the  mule-trains  ram- 
bled up  and  down  the  trail,  defying 
the  railroad  to  compete,  while,  as  far 
as  I  know,  there  was  not  a  cart-wheel 
nearer  than  Santiago,  but  there  were 
plenty  of  interesting  people  and  some 
of  the  most  beautiful  scenery  in  the 
world.  It  seemed  to  me  that  we 
could  do  no  better  than  stay  there 
forever,  or  till  we  were  forcibly  re- 
moved. As  a  background  for  King 
it  was  better  than  the  South  Seas  ;  it 
was  better  than  Mexico ;  indeed,  I 
was  the  only  serpent  in  it ;  harmless 
enough,  but,  as  of  old  in  the  Garden 
of  Eden,  a  predestined  victim. 

At  first  all  went  well.  Every  morn- 
ing we  rose  with  the  sun  and  rambled 
out  over  the  hills,  after  the  usual 
manner  of  the  geologist ;  and  returned 
before  the  sun  grew  too  hot,  to  break- 
170 


Henry  Adams 

fast  and  doze  in  the  shade  till  it  grew 
cool  again  ;  but  within  very  few  days 
King  showed  signs  of  coming  to  the 
end  of  his  interest  in  science  and  land- 
scape. Even  paradox  failed  to  stim- 
ulate him.  Alarmed  for  fear  of  being 
turned  out  on  the  hot  world  again,  I 
began  to  take  a  profound  interest  in 
geology  and  to  dispute  every  view  he 
held.  Unluckily,  he  knew  only  too 
well  that  I  could  not  tell  the  differ- 
ence between  a  trilobite  and  a  land- 
crab,  and  we  disagreed  entirely  in  re- 
gard to  a  favorite  theory  of  mine 
that  if  we  could  get  deep  enough 
down  into  the  archsean  rocks,  we 
should  find  President  Eliot  and  the 
whole  Faculty  of  Harvard  College, 
besides  all  the  geologists  there  ;  but, 
when  at  last  I  went  to  the  length  of 
asserting  with  much  temper  that  a 
lump  of  coral  was  obviously  a  recent 
lava,  he  lost  interest  even  in  dispute, 
and  threw  me  over.  In  fact  King's 
171 


King 

real  interest  was  not  in  science,  but  in 
man,  as  he  often  said,  meaning  chiefly 
woman.  You  remember  his  fam- 
ous aphorism  :  *'  Nature  never  made 
more  than  one  mistake,  but  that  was 
fatal ;  it  was  when  she  differentiated 
the  sexes."  In  his  instincts  I  think 
he  regarded  the  male  as  a  sort  of  de- 
fence thrown  off  by  the  female,  much 
like  the  shell  of  a  crab,  endowed  with 
no  original  energy  of  his  own  ;  but  it 
was  not  the  modern  woman  that 
interested  him ;  it  was  the  archaic 
female,  with  instincts  and  without  in- 
tellect. At  best  King  had  but  a  poor 
opinion  of  intellect,  chiefly  because 
he  found  it  so  defective  an  instru- 
ment, but  he  admitted  that  it  was  all 
the  male  had  to  live  upon  ;  while  the 
female  was  rich  in  the  inheritance  of 
every  animated  energy  back  to  the 
polyps  and  the  crystals.  If  he  had  a 
choice  among  women,  it  was  in  favor 
of  Indians  and  negroes,  but  if  a  wo- 
172 


Henry  Adams 

man  was  only  old  enough  and  ugly 
enough,  and  wore  a  red  bandanna 
round  her  head,  King  was  sure  to 
be  in  her  cabin,  drinking  coffee,  and 
talking  negro-Cuban  dialect  that  was 
invented  for  the  occasion,  and  getting 
from  her  all  the  views  of  creation 
in  which  she  was  rich. 

This  sort  of  social  dissipation  was 
not  so  safe  in  Cuba  then  as  it  may 
now  be.  In  the  province  of  Santi- 
ago in  those  days,  among  the  coun- 
try-people, one  was  sure  of  finding 
only  two  settled  principles, —  rebel- 
lion and  brigandage.  King  did  not 
object  to  rebellion,  but  he  adored 
brigandage.  Within  ten  days  he 
knew  all  the  old  negroes  in  the  dis- 
trict, and  began  to  go  off  at  night  to 
their  dances,  and  bring  back  tales  of 
the  old  rebellion,  and  mutterings 
of  the  coming  one,  besides  stories 
of  the  brigands  who  still  held  out 
against  the  government,  and  arrests 

173 


King 

constantly  being  made,  and  visits  to 
patriots  in  gaol  and  out,  until  I  pon- 
dered in  silence,  with  more  doubt 
than  ever,  whether  Bloomingdale  was 
to  become  the  last  refuge  of  sanity, 
since,  outside  of  Bloomingdale,  the 
world  was  obviously  more  insane  than 
within  it. 

The  situation  was  really  not  un- 
like one  of  Frank  Stockton's  novels. 
There  were  two  elderly  men  ;  bald- 
headed  ;  gray-haired,  or  at  least  sable- 
silvered,  like  Hamlet's  father;  literary 
and  scientific  gentlemen  of  a  respecta- 
bility that  appalled  even  the  Knicker- 
bocker Club  and  themselves  ;  persons 
who  had  never  even  been  in  gaol  or 
the  police-court,  and  who  carried  a 
sort  of  aureole  of  title-pages  round 
their  heads  to  protect  them  from  vul- 
gar sunshine ;  and  these  two  profes- 
sors were  plunged  suddenly  up  to 
their  necks  in  a  seething  caldron  of 
barbarous  passion  as  though  they 
174 


Henry  Adams 

were  missionaries  in  the  Fiji  Islands  or 
New  Guinea.  Carelessly,  as  though 
we  were  hanging  about  this  Club,  we 
were  inviting,  every  day,  accidents  of 
a  kind  that  were  every  day  occurring. 
At  any  moment  a  file  of  Spanish  sol- 
diers might  walk  in,  and  not  bid  us 
goodbye  until  we  were  safely  on  board 
the  steamer  for  Nassau  and  New 
York ;  and  the  only  obvious  reason 
for  not  locking  us  up,  or  sending  us 
off,  was  that,  if  the  governor  began, 
he  could  never  stop,  for,  as  far  as 
King  could  see,  every  man,  woman, 
or  child  in  the  entire  province  was  a 
rebel  or  brigand  or  both. 

For  myself  I  saw  the  humor  of  the 
situation  rather  acutely.  Sticking 
to  the  habit  of  wandering  off,  every 
morning,  across  the  mountain  ridges, 
and  through  the  by-paths  of  the  for- 
est, it  was  always  sure  that  some  of 
King's  friends  of  the  night  before 
were  not  far  off;  and  their  reputa- 
175 


King 

tion  and  appearance  warranted  me  in 
thinking  that,  as  I  walked  by  their 
huts,  they  were  making  a  fairly  cor- 
rect estimate  of  my  money-value  to 
King,  and  of  his  to  me,  by  way  of 
ransom.  They  had  every  means  of 
reaching  the  best  sources  of  informa- 
tion while  King  was  practising  the 
danza  under  their  instruction ;  and 
there  were  among  them  a  certain  num- 
ber of  gentlemen  on  whose  heads  the 
Spaniards  had  set  a  price.  I  thought 
the  situation  mixed,  especially  when 
connected  with  the  exploits  of  a  very 
celebrated  bandit  named  Daniele 
who  owned  the  whole  country,  except 
where  the  Spanish  patrol  rode.  King 
himself  was  a  little  at  a  loss  to  know 
how  he  stood  in  relation  to  this  neigh- 
bor. Senor  Portuondo  invited  him 
to  ride  one  day  some  thirty  miles  into 
the  interior  to  examine  a  coal-seam, 
and  King  was  somewhat  surprised 
when  their  party  was  joined  on  the 
176 


Henry  Adams 

way,  in  an  interval  between  coffee- 
drinking,  by  a  stranger  on  horseback 
whose  name  and  business  were  not 
mentioned,  but  whom  King  believed 
to  be  Daniele.  He  remarked  on  his 
return, —  for  a  patient  just  released 
from  Bloomingdale,  he  thought  a 
sixty-mile  ride  in  a  tropical  sun,  on  a 
diet  of  the  strongest  coffee-and-brig- 
ands,  might  suggest  new  views  to  his 
doctors. 

We  were  told  afterwards  that  the 
gentleman  known  as  Daniele  was 
caught  at  a  festival,  by  the  Span- 
iards, of  course  by  money,  and  shot 
where  he  stood  ;  but  we  heard  only 
of  his  exploits,  and  of  certain  dra- 
matic murders  he  committed.  I 
thought  it  all  the  more  interesting 
that  he  left  us  alone.  I  took  for 
granted  that  we  were  under  some 
one's  protection ;  probably  that  of 
Mr.  Brooks ;  but  there  are  black 
sheep  even  among  brigands,  and  it 


King 

was  by  no  means  always  that  Mr. 
Brooks  could  protect  himself.  I  have 
been  curious  to  know  whether  King's 
rebel-friends  had  a  share  in  our  com- 
forts ;  but  however  that  may  have 
been,  nothing  happened.  Everyone 
was  kind  and  hospitable.  Of  a  Sun- 
day morning  the  neighbors  brought 
a  brace  or  two  of  fighting-cocks  over, 
to  let  us  have  a  cock-fight  in  our  own 
court.  With  Ramsden  we  rode  up 
to  the  Gran  Piedra  and  passed  the 
night  under  the  stars.  No  one  ever 
so  much  as  asked  a  question, — Span- 
iard, Cuban,  mulatto  or  negro, — but 
every  man,  woman  and  child  ex- 
pected the  revolution  that  was  com- 
ing, and  counted  on  King  for  a  friend. 
We  stayed  at  Dos  Bocas  a  month, 
and  then  King  became  restless  again 
and  insisted  on  going  to  Nassau. 
Of  our  subsequent  wanderings  it 
would  be  easy  to  make  a  story,  but  I 
am  not  telling  a  story ;  I  am  only 
178 


Henry  Adams 

drawing  a  moral,  and  to  make  it 
stand  out  more  distinctly  I  have 
ventured  to  use  Santiago  for  a  back- 
ground.  Much  greater  persons  have 
done  it  before  me,  as  you  know,  with 
more  success  than  King  and  I  then 
dreamed  of ;  but  when  that  man 
Daniele,  if  it  really  was  Daniele,  told 
King  that  the  rebellion  was  coming, 
it  seemed  to  me  that  I  had  better 
offer  no  obstacle  to  leaving  our  Para- 
dise. My  business  was,  if  I  had  any 
business  at  all,  to  keep  him  quiet, 
away  from  excitement,  out  of  mis- 
chief. Remember  that  King  took 
his  companion  with  him  for  that  pur- 
pose ;  and  certainly  you  do  not  need 
to  be  told  that  he  could  not  have 
selected,  even  among  his  enormous 
acquaintance,  a  more  quieting  influ- 
ence than  he  chose.  It  stands  to 
reason  that  if  he  could  have  found 
another  peripatetic  literary  man  older 
than  himself,  of  quieter  habits,  with 
179 


King 

more  respect  for  conventions,  more 
deference  to  authority  especially  when 
unreasonable,  more  devotion  to  all 
Administrations  and  Constitutions, 
in  short,  with  more  admiration  for 
principles  and  powers  of  every  sort, 
and  society  in  all  its  dogmatic  forms, 
— he  would  not  have  chosen  the  man 
he  did.  You  may  take  it  for  certain 
that  in  all  America  there  was  no  per- 
son on  whom  his  restless  energy  was 
likely  to  have  so  little  effect  as  on 
me.  Now,  my  moral  belongs  here, 
and  it  is  the  measure  of  Kings  na- 
ture. To  him  it  mattered  little  that, 
a  year  after  our  stay  at  Dos  Bocas, 
Maceo  and  Gomez  raised  the  stan- 
dard of  rebellion,  and  our  Cuban 
friends  were  swept  into  it.  He  found 
it  natural  and  easy  to  follow  them, 
and  he  flung  himself  into  it,  as  you 
remember,  with  all  his  old  energy  of 
feeling.  When  I  saw  him  the  next 
winter,  he  was  already  deep  in  it.     I 

t8o 


Henry  Adams 

tried  mildly  to  show  him  that  the 
cost  even  of  success  would  be  too 
awful  to  warrant  encouraging  a  hope 
of  it ;  and  that,  with  Wall  Street 
against,  and  Boston  to  a  man,  and 
Grover  Cleveland,  and  the  Century 
Club,  and  only  he  and  I  for  it,  suc- 
cess was  altogether  out  of  sight.  To 
him  that  sort  of  desperate  odds  was 
an  amusement,  and  alone  gave  suffi- 
cient play  to  his  energies.  This  was 
well  enough  for  him ;  the  trouble 
was  that  of  all  great  energies,  that 
the  influence  never  ended  with  him- 
self, but  dragged  his  friends  into  its 
vortex ;  and  in  this  particular  instance 
converted  a  harmless  and  respectful 
servant  of  all  established  authority — 
particularly  of  despotisms — into  the 
patient  ally  of  the  most  uneasy  and 
persistent  conspirator  your  Club  ever 
nourished  in  its  bosom. 

He  won  that  stake,  in  spite  of  my 
prophecies,    as    he    had    won    many 

i8i 


King 

others,  almost  as  desperate  ;  but  that 
was  not  the  point  to  us  who  were 
his  friends.  The  point  was  his  sin- 
gularly sympathetic  energy  which 
carried  us  with  him  whether  we  would 
or  no.  To  do  us  justice,  I  do  not 
think  we  greatly  cared  whether  he 
was  right  or  wrong.  As  he  put  it, 
only  one  thing  is  certain — Nothing 
is  right!  His  only  ultimate  truth 
was  the  action,  not  the  thought.  To 
him,  all  science  and  all  life  were  in 
that  law,  which,  after  all,  is  the  only 
result  of  his  generation — the  law  of 
Energy.  Those  of  us  who  gladly 
and  carelessly  gave  ourselves  up  to 
his  influence  and  let  him  swing  us  as 
he  liked, — those  he  loved,  and  his 
gayety  and  humor  played  about  them 
to  the  last,  when  gayety  was  the  very 
last  of  emotions  either  in  his  mind  or 
in  ours.  The  last  letter  I  have  from 
him  was  written  in  the  spring  of  1897  ; 
he  wrote  about  a  trip  to  Mexico  which 
182 


Henry  Adams 

I  could  not  take  because  I  was  obliged 
to  go  to  Europe.  Not  but  that  I 
would  have  instantly  thrown  Europe 
over  to  go  with  him  to  Mexico  ;  and 
this  last  chance  is  now  one  of  the 
regrets  of  my  life  : 

"  I  grieve  that  you  cannot  go  to 
Mexico  with  me,"  he  said;  ''all  I 
lack  is  a  pessimist  addicted  to  water- 
colors  and  capable  of  a  humorous 
view  of  the  infinite.  It  is  hard  lines 
to  go  alone,  for  the  only  real  fun  is  to 
watch  the  other  fellow.  Come  along, 
and  I  will,  in  the  secrecy  of  the 
primeval  woods  admit  the  truth  of 
all  your  geological  criticisms  of  me ; 
and  I  will  even  execute  in  advance 
an  assignment  of  half  the  brown  girls 
we  meet.  Moreover  I  will  be  a  sec- 
ond La  Farge,  and  never  tell.  Dear 
me  !  I  will  do  anything  you  like.  I 
will  read  your  complete  works  ;  go 
to  England  with  you  in  June,  and 
help  sustain  Hay  under  the  sodden 
183 


King 

weight  of  British  aristocracy  ;  or 
in  short  anything,  if  you  will  sing 
that  little  Cuban  song :  '  Yo  me  soy 
contigo  ! '  " 

We  were  touching  sixty  years  old 
when  he  wrote  this.  He  was  strug- 
gling desperately  under  a  load  which 
was  sure  to  break  him  down  ;  and  as 
for  girls,  brown,  black  or  yellow,  they 
had  about  as  much  interest  for  us 
as  a  phonograph.  If  he  wanted  me 
with  him  it  was  because  he  knew 
that  I  was  anything  but  a  gay  com- 
panion, and  that  with  me  he  need 
make  no  effort.  Yet  it  was  instinc- 
tive with  him  to  call  for  companion- 
ship on  his  own  youth,  and  he  was 
really  thinking  not  of  me,  but  of  the 
pine  woods  of  1870;  the  Sierras; 
the  Rockies  ;  and  the  brown  girls. 
We  both  knew  that  it  was  all  over ; 
that  thenceforward  his  energies  were 
to  be  thrown  away  ;  that  the  particu- 
lar stake  in  life  for  which  he  had 
184 


Henry  Adams 

played  was  lost,  by  no  fault  of  his, 
but  by  those  strokes  of  financial  bad 
luck  which  broke  down  fully  half  of 
the  strongest  men  of  our  time  ;  we 
both  knew  that  the  struggle  was  too 
desperate  to  be  kept  up  much  longer  ; 
but  he  remained  the  best  companion 
in  the  world  to  the  end. 


185 


Clarence  King 

John  LaFarge 


187 


Clarence  King 

IN  my  early  acquaintance  with  Clar- 
ence King,  I  fancied  a  resem- 
blance between  him  and  Dante 
Gabriel  Rossetti.  I  still  think  there 
was  something,  perhaps  merely  in 
the  shape  of  the  head,  which  justi- 
fied the  impression.  And  notwith- 
standing the  very  distinct  New  Eng- 
land side  of  King,  there  was  some- 
thing, the  mark  of  which  seemed 
to  connect  him  with  such  South- 
ern terms  as  might  belong  to  a 
Spaniard  or  a  descendant  of  a  Span- 
iard. In  his  picturesque  accounts 
of  dealings  with  the  people  whom 
we  think  of  as  belonging  to  Spain, 
there  seemed  to  be  always  a  subtle 
appreciation  of  their  character,  a 
manner  of  fitting  into  it  which  took 
away  from  the  appearance  of  a 
189 


Clarence  King 

stranger  talking  about  strangers. 
Not  that  he  was  not  amused,  and 
perpetually  so,  by  the  differing  char- 
acteristics of  the  other  race.  Indeed 
those  of  us  who  remember  the 
wondrous  anecdotes  beginning  in 
the  middle  and  ending  nowhere,  con- 
cerning various  characters  of  dif- 
ferent persons,  partook  also  of  the 
keen  representation  of  far-away 
manners  of  thought  and  living.  This 
appreciation  of  a  charm  in  certain 
strange  characters  was  probably  the 
expression  of  what  we  call  the 
artistic  temperament.  The  artist 
certainly  trains  himself  in  the  faculty 
of  putting  himself  into  another's 
place.  However  free  his  judgment 
may  be,  his  imagination  builds  for 
him  the  circumstances  of  the  other 
form  of  life,  or  manners,  or  mind. 
And  the  mind  can  be  that  of  an 
artist  without  the  training  of  the 
eye  and  hand  that  is  professional. 
190 


John  LaFarge 

Clarence  King  fitted  naturally  Into 
the  ways  of  thinking  of  artists.  He 
knew  many  of  them.  He  was  an 
early  appreciator  of  many.  He  may 
be  said  to  have  been  one  of  the 
early  discoverers  of  certain  men,  and 
there  remained  in  him  this  manner 
of  discovering  what  he  liked,  of 
inventing  his  own  enjoyment,  not 
taking  it  ready-made  from  others. 
When  he  described  his  likings  there 
was  a  freshness  to  the  apprecia- 
tions which  was  specially  his  own. 
It  seemed  quite  natural  that  he 
should  have  made  the  accidental 
acquaintance  of  Mr.  Ruskin  through 
sudden  remarks  uttered  at  some 
picture  dealer's,  when  King,  not 
knowing  with  whom  he  was  discuss- 
ing, argued  upon  a  number  of  sub- 
tle points  which  to  him  were  evident. 
The  famous  writer  appears  to  have 
been  delighted  by  the  value  and 
form  of  these  sayings  or  criticisms 
191 


Clarence  King 

and  the  ensuing  acquaintance  was 
one  of  the  many  gracious  episodes 
in  Clarence  King's  European  ex- 
perience. 

King's  collecting  of  paintings  and 
drawings  began  somewhere  about 
this  time,  and  we  can  all  who  knew 
him  remember  how  remarkable  was 
the  choice  of  what  he  gathered  and 
how  unexpected.  The  little  dark 
room  in  the  old  Studio  Building  in 
Tenth  Street  held  paintings  and 
drawings  and  stuff  of  all  kinds  fit  for 
museums.  He  might  say  to  a  friend, 
as  he  has  to  me,  "  By  the  bye  I  have 
a  Turner  or  a  Millet  somewhere  here," 
and  then  bring  out  from  behind  trunks 
and  the  other  deposits,  which  his  no- 
madic life  obliged  him  to  warehouse, 
some  example  of  the  artists.  Then, 
we  remember  also  that  he  liked  to 
lend.  It  pleased  him  to  have  others 
enjoy  what  he  had  not  the  time  and 
the  place  for.  There  remained  in  his 
192 


John  LaFarge 

mind  a  wish  to  find  an  abiding  home 
for  all  these  things,  and  many  times 
he  described  to  me  the  manner  of 
place  where  he  might  rest  with  these 
treasures  about  him.  But  they  were 
not  referred  to  in  his  talk.  The  place 
was  built  by  his  imagination  for  its 
beauty.  When  he  described  to  me 
what  he  proposed  to  do,  there  was 
usually  some  reference  to  the  forms 
of  art  which  were  familiar  to  me.  As 
an  instance  :  he  had  planned,  if  I  may 
so  describe  a  mere  figment  of  the 
imagination,  one  great  room  in  this 
dream-building,  where,  high  up,  above 
windows  and  doors,  a  manner  of  frieze 
should  run  around  a  large  space  filled 
with  the  most  beautiful  of  stained 
glass,  and  continuing  mentally  the 
memories  of  his  visits  to  Mr.  Ruskin, 
and  his  seeing  the  drawings  of  Botti- 
celli, he  suggested  that  stories  from 
Dante's  Divine  Comedy  give  the  mo- 
tive   for    this    decoration.     We    had 

13 

193 


Clarence  King 

many  improbable  devisings  for  this 
dream,  both  of  us  united  in  the  memo- 
ries of  the  wonderful  drawings.  This 
delight  in  the  imaginary  use  of  the 
splendor  of  glass  in  some  way  practi- 
cable but  novel  or  unknown,  brought 
him  at  once  to  propose  with  me  a 
scheme,  which  I  still  think  worthy  of 
our  having  worked  it  out  together. 
This  was  when  the  project  of  the 
tomb  of  General  Grant  had  been 
proposed  to  the  public.  Our  notion 
was  to  have  filled  the  drum,  or  per- 
haps even  the  curves  of  the  dome, 
with  the  richest  and  deepest  of  figured 
glass,  built,  if  I  may  so  express  it, 
into  the  walls  or  the  structure,  and 
not  a  mere  fitting  in  as  windows. 
This  was  on  his  part,  as  also  on  mine, 
a  looking  forward  to  a  future  which 
is  certain  to  come.  The  experience 
of  the  last  few  years  in  the  develop- 
ment of  that  wonderful  material  has 
pointed  out  how  rational  would  be  the 
194 


John  LaFarge 

use  of  glass  combined  with  the  struc- 
ture. This  imaginary  tower  would 
then  have  been  like  the  glory  of  the 
interior  of  a  great  jewel  in  the  day, 
but  at  night  would  have  sent  out  a 
far  radiance  over  the  entire  city,  mak- 
ing as  it  were  a  pharos,  a  light-house, 
to  be  seen  from  afar  by  night,  as  well 
as  by  day,  and  dominating  the  river 
as  well  as  the  land.  Of  course  this 
was  too  poetic  and  ideal  a  structure 
to  be  accepted  at  the  date  we  pro- 
posed it,  but  I  cite  it  as  one  of  the 
manners  through  which  King's  many- 
sided  nature  found  employment. 

I  keep,  naturally,  to  these  relations 
with  Clarence  King  on  the  side  of 
art.  Others  beside  myself  have  en- 
joyed the  wonderful  way  through 
which  he  would  expound  scientific 
theories,  and  give  to  them  all  the 
charm  of  a  story,  and  leave  his  hearer 
believing  that  he,  too,  understood 
quite  well  the  scientific  basis  of  the 
195 


Clarence  King 

elucidation.  Others,  better  than  my- 
self, could  describe  the  charm  of  his 
stories,  of  his  recitals  of  adventure, 
the  poetic  completeness  of  these  re- 
citals. Whenever  he  came  back  from 
any  trip,  things  had  happened  to  him 
which  only  the  mind  and  eye  of  a  con- 
stant enjoyer  of  human  nature  could 
have  met  with.  I  f  only  he  had  written 
them  out !  They  will  probably  have 
perished ;  and  yet  even  the  very 
names  of  the  tales,  as  we  have  chris- 
tened them,  contained  the  proposition 
of  picturesque  and  strange  amuse- 
ment. Who  that  has  heard  the  story 
of  the  Hen  and  the  Gondolier  but  has 
wished  to  see  it  written  out  to  give 
an  example  of  the  curious  chances  of 
Western  life  ? 

Behind  this  there  was  a  great  mir- 
age of  a  possible  future  of  some  mine, 
the  very  record  of  which  was  in  itself 
romantic.  When  the  resulting  for- 
tune should  come,  the  artists  were  to 

ig6 


John  LaFarge 

have  a  chance,  were  to  help  make  use 
of  it  for  beautiful  things. 

I  have  kept  to  these  few  words 
which  connect  our  friend  and  myself 
with  the  ideas  of  art,  with  the  mani- 
fold interests  which  belong  to  that 
side  of  the  intellect.  It  will  be  for 
others  to  talk  of  him  in  the  ways 
through  which  they  knew  him  more 
intimately  than  I  did.  It  is  difficult 
to  believe  that  the  brilliant,  anxious, 
many-sided  mind  has  passed  away 
and  has  left  so  little  of  a  record  for 
those  sides  in  which  some  of  us  knew 
him,  but  which  to  the  great  public 
were  unknown. 


197 


King— "The  Frolic  and  the 
Gentle" 

Edmund  Clarence  Stedman 


199 


King — "  The  Frolic  and  the 
Gentle  " 

FROM  the  first  he  had  the  grace 
to  put  me  on  close  terms  with 
him,  although  we  seldom  met  when 
he  had  not  just  come  from  a  distant 
region  or  was  departing  for  some 
other  point  as  far.  In  this  wise,  I 
could  not  free  myself  from  the  illu- 
sion that  he  was  a  kind  of  Martian — 
a  planetary  visitor,  of  a  texture  dif- 
fering from  that  of  ordinary  Earth- 
dwellers.  It  seemed  quite  natural 
that  he  should  map  out  the  globe, 
and  bore  through  it  to  see  of  what 
It  was  made.  Now  that  he  is  gone, 
I  am  still  looking  for  his  casual 
return. 

There  was  one  occasion  which  I 
did  not  share  with  others  of  his  pres- 

20I 


''  The  Frolic  and  the  Gentle  " 

ent  celebrants  :  a  period  when  I  had 
him  to  myself,  and  when  he  began 
an  episode  eventful  in  even  his  own 
full  life.  This  was  nothing  less  than 
that  of  his  initial  visit  to  the  Old 
World.  By  chance,  with  a  son  in  his 
first  year  out  from  Yale,  I  left  New 
York,  in  the  spring  of  1882,  on  the 
same  steamer  which  numbered  on 
its  passenger-roll  Clarence  King,  and 
another  mining-expert,  at  that  time 
his  partner.  Of  course  I  had  read 
with  admiration,  a  decade  earlier, 
the  Mountaineering  in  the  Sierra 
Nevada,  and  often  had  wondered 
why  its  luminous  author  had  not 
shone  continuously  in  our  literature. 
I  should  have  wondered  the  more  that 
I  had  never  met  him,  had  I  not  seen 
his  name  figuring  in  those  society 
lists  that  were  quite  alien  to  my  quiet 
round  of  life.  But  at  dinner  we  were 
at  the  same  table.  He  was  good 
enough  to  make  the  advance,  and  to 


Edmund  Clarence  Stedman 

claim  a  whimsical  consanguinity  on 
the  score  of  our  Clarentian  prenom- 
ina.  Now,  I  knew  that  he  was  a 
famous  government  geodeticist,  but 
had  no  conception  of  his  temper- 
ament. Perhaps  he  took  me  with 
equal  seriousness.  At  all  events,  he 
was  more  on  his  dignity,  or  gravity, 
than  I  ever  afterward  saw  him.  In 
the  starry  evening  we  walked  the 
deck  together,  and  talked  of  public 
affairs,  books,  etc.,  soon  wandering 
to  scientific  research  and  discovery, 
concerning  which  I  eagerly  listened  to 
his  theories  of  matter,  vortex  rings, 
the  Earth's  structure,  the  chances  of  a 
future  life.  I  doubt  if  there  was  a 
laugh  between  us,  and  am  sure  that  I 
never  again  found  him  so  long  in  one 
humor.  Nor  was  there  anything  in 
this  thorough -bred,  travel-dressed, 
cosmopolitan  to  suggest  that  he  had 
not  spent  repeated  seasons  upon  the 
hemisphere  to  which  we  were  bound. 
203 


''  The  Frolic  and  the  Gentle  " 

Out  on  the  blue,  the  next  morn- 
ing, what  a  transformation !  As  I 
have  said,  it  was  in  fact  King's  first 
opportunity  to  visit  Europe,  strictly 
off  duty,  and  with  means  that  seemed 
to  him  beyond  the  dreams  of  avarice. 
He  broke  out  into  a  thousand  pranks 
and  paradoxes.  Freedom  was  what 
we  both  needed,  and  my  own  reserve 
was  at  an  end  the  moment  I  saw  him 
changed  from  the  dignitary  to  a  ver- 
itable Prince  Florizel  with  the  tray 
of  tarts,  offering  lollipops  right  and 
left.  He  and  his  comrade,  I  was 
speedily  made  to  know,  had  *'  struck 
it  rich  "  in  a  mine  and  were  indepen- 
dent for  life.  His  motto  for  one 
summer  at  least  was  ''Vive  la  baga- 
telle'' His  frolic  was  incessant  and 
contagious.  Here  was  my  overnight 
philosopher  with  double-eagles  in  his 
pocket,  one  of  which  he  periodically 
flipped  in  the  air  to  decide  wagers 
made  upon  every  possible  pretext 
204 


Edmund  Clarence  Stedman 

between  himself  and  his  decidedly 
less  buoyant  colleague.  He  jested, 
fabled,  sparkled,  scorned  concealment 
of  his  delight.  Indeed,  I  verily 
believe  that  I  then  had  the  rare 
fortune,  at  the  beginning  of  our 
friendship,  first,  to  learn  the  resources 
and  conviction  of  his  noble  mind, 
and  in  a  trice  to  enjoy  the  ebul- 
lition of  his  mirth  and  fancy  on 
some  of  the  happiest  days  of  his 
existence. 

He  had  with  him  a  Gargantuan 
letter  of  credit.  From  a  slip  in  his 
wallet  he  took  and  showed  me  a 
single  draft  for  a  thousand  pounds,  a 
very  sacred  special  fund,  which  was 
to  be  piously  expended  for  some  one 
work  of  art,  his  roc's  egg,  his  su- 
preme trophy — in  fine,  the  most  beau- 
teous and  essential  thing  he  might 
come  upon  in  this  tour.  All  this  as 
gravely  as  if  he  were  a  Knight  of  the 
Grail,  or  meditating  in  the  end  to 
205 


**  The  Frolic  and  the  Gentle  " 

shift  to  America  the  Hotel  Cluny  or 
a  court  of  the  Alhambra. 

Among  the  many  wagers  which  he 
forced  his  staid  comrade  to  accept 
was  one  that  compelled  the  loser  to 
take  the  four  of  us,  young  and  old, 
to  Epsom  on  the  Derby  Day  that 
would  occur  soon  after  our  arrival  in 
London.  King  lost  this  bet,  plainly 
by  his  own  intent.  Everything  was 
to  come  off  in  the  traditional  style — 
that  the  Scriptures  might  be  fulfilled 
to  the  uttermost,  as  indeed  they  were. 
From  the  White  Horse  Inn,  Picca- 
dilly, a  fortnight  later,  we  took  the 
road  and  shared  its  carnival,  on 
the  finest  tallyho  obtainable  ;  whip, 
guard,  lackey,  hampers  and  all. 
Nothing  was  omitted  in  the  going 
and  coming.  It  was  a  brilliant  day  ; 
our  coach  rounded  to  in  the  center 
of  the  field,  as  in  Frith's  picture,  and 
there  were  the  gypsy  tumblers  on 
the  green,  the  lunchers,  the  Prince 
206 


Edmund  Clarence  Stedman 

of  Wales,  the  race — with  the  Duke 
of  Westminster's  colors  to  the  fore. 
Yes,  and  we  saw  a  welcher  mobbed, 
and  everything  else  was  accom- 
plished ;  and  I  still  cherish  a  fading 
tin-type  exhibit  of  our  group  on  the 
tallyho,  lifting  our  cups,  with  King  as 
toastmaster. 

Our  Prince  of  paradox  would  not 
bide  another  day  in  London,  but 
sped  to  France,  leaving  me  a  bearer 
of  ill  tidings  to  those  who  knew  he 
was  coming,  and  whose  desire  to 
welcome  him  taught  me  that  he  was 
an  international  character.  When  I 
overtook  him  in  Paris  he  was  on  the 
eve  of  going  to  his  longed-for  Spain  ; 
not,  indeed,  to  tarry  even  there,  but 
to  push  right  through  to  Morocco  or 
Algeria,  upon  the  trail  of  a  certain 
unique  shawl,  or  curtain,  or  tapestry, 
which  he  alone  must  possess.  Of 
his  return  to  Spain,  his  social  life  in 
France,  his  conquest  of  England,  his 
207 


**  The  Frolic  and  the  Gentle  " 

blood-brotherhood  with  Ferdinand 
Rothschild,  and  of  the  spolia  opima 
brought  back  to  America, — are  they 
not  all  written  in  the  book  of  the 
hearts  that  held  him  dear  ? 

Thus  have  I  told  how  Pantagruel 
found  Panurge,  whom  he  loved  all 
his  life  thereafter.  I  do  not  know 
whether  it  was  on  this  ornamental 
journey  that  Clarence  King's  genius 
led  him  to  the  imperishable  Helmet 
of  Mambrino,  now  hung  (by  proxy) 
from  its  arm  of  wrought  iron  in  the 
upper  chambers  of  the  Century. 
Whether  it  was  then  or  afterward 
that  he  conceived  his  epistle  to  Don 
Horacio,  and  therewith  imprisoned 
the  very  soul  of  Spain  in  the  flask  of 
his  translucent  English,  the  feat  was 
equally  enduring.  Nothing  compara- 
ble to  the  flavor  of  his  style  is  to  be 
found  elsewhere,  unless  in  the  fantasy 
of  his  fellow-Centurion  to  whose  loi- 
terings  in  Mexico  we  owe  San  An- 
208 


Edmund  Clarence  Stedman 

tonio  of  the  Gardens  and  successive 
companion-pieces.  King's  speech  and 
writ  were  iridescent  with  the  imagi- 
nation of  the  born  romancer.  Judge 
of  the  statue  by  the  fragment,  and 
think  of  what  was  lost  to  literature 
by  the  fact  that  it  was  not  his  voca- 
tion, but  his  accomplishment.  Nor 
was  it  his  lot  to  escape  enrollment 
with  the  inheritors  of  unfulfilled  re- 
nown by  winning,  like  the  most  dis- 
tinguished of  his  poet  friends,  a  place 
in  history  as  one  of  the  arbiters  of 
civilization,  and  one  of  those  who 
shape  the  destinies  of  their  own 
lands.  None  the  less,  the  by-play  of 
some  men  has  a  quality  unattained 
by  a  host  of  devotees  who  make  its 
acquisition  the  labor  of  their  worka- 
day lives. 

Quis  desiderio  sit  pudor  !     As  I 
humbly  stood  on  one  side,  that  arc- 
tic morning  when  the  choice  and  true 
followed  his  remains  down  the  aisle, 
209 


*'  The  Frolic  and  the  Gentle  " 

I  knew  that  deep  in  the  souls  of  all, 
however  freezing  the  bitter  wind,  the 
memory  of  King  was  enshrined  for- 
ever, and  that  his  Manes  would  have 
no  cause  to  make  complaint  of  bene- 
fits forgot. 


King  at  the  Century 

William  Crary  Brownell 


King  at  the  Century 

I  FIRST  met  King  in  the  old  club- 
house of  the  Century  Association 
in  Fifteenth  Street  and  rarely  saw 
him  outside  of  our  club  surround- 
ings—  save  on  occasions  that  were 
for  the  most  part  but  a  projection 
of  Century  comradery.  It  is  there- 
fore only  as  a  fellow  habitue  —  not 
quite  the  same  thing  as  a  member, 
merely  —  of  the  Century,  that  I  may 
venture  to  speak  of  him  in  the 
companionship  of  his  older  and 
closer  friends.  We  had,  indeed,  in 
familiarity  with  Newport,  a  common 
tie  of  which  it  would  be  difficult 
for  any  one  without  these  associa- 
tions to  appreciate  the  force.  But 
in  every  other  respect  —  which  is  to 
say  in  a  great  many  other  respects 
213 


King  at  the  Century 

— the  debt  I  am  conscious  of  owing 
to  King  I  owe  to  the  Century  also 
for  an  acquaintance  that  began  there 
and  there  ripened  into  a  friend- 
ship of  which,  Hke  his  other  friends, 
I  was  destined  to  receive  proofs 
that  were  not  only  substantial  but 
touching  as  well.  And  I  think  it 
is  interesting  witness  of  the  scope 
of  this  Association's  influence  and 
the  character  of  its  atmosphere,  that 
a  sentiment  of  such  vivacity  and 
such  substance  as  that  with  which 
King's  memory  is  there  cherished 
by  so  many  who  did  not  know  him 
elsewhere,  can  be  born  and  fostered 
in  its  friendly  and  familiar  environ- 
ment. 

It  is  an  environment  to  which  he 
was  evidently  and  exquisitely  at- 
tuned, and  which  framed  and  set  off 
both  his  lighter  and  his  graver  ac- 
tivities of  mind  to  harmonious  ad- 
vantage. Of  every  group  of  which 
214 


William  Crary  Brownell 

he  formed  a  part  he  was  extraor- 
dinarily apt  to  be  the  centre,  and 
a  society  where  *'  superiorities  "  are, 
though  not  perhaps  **  discounte- 
nanced/' at  least  rather  thoroughly 
tested,  was  often  cordially  content 
to  figure  as  a  background  for  the 
relief  of  his  shining  sprightliness. 
He  was  the  ideal  clubman  because 
he  illustrated  in  an  ideal  degree  the 
Epicurean  ideal.  He  was  so  con- 
stituted as  fastidiously  to  desire  to 
make  the  most  of  the  Epicurean 
principle,  to  get  the  best  out  of  its 
practice.  Hence  his  luxuriousness 
itself  —  and  he  had  this  quality  in 
an  eminent  degree  —  was  charged 
with  energy.  No  one  ever  saw  him 
lounge  or  loll  or  doze  —  except  ex- 
pressly. He  did  not  know  what 
enervation  was.  His  movements 
were  rapid ;  his  step  was  quick ; 
he  never  strolled.  His  enjoyment 
was  invariably  marked  by  zest  rather 
215 


King  at  the  Century 

than  tranquilHty,  though  it  never  lost 
equipoise  in  exuberance.  Even  his 
invaHdism  was  characterized  by  ac- 
tivity. It  left  him  essentially  un- 
touched. For  his  energy,  in  spite 
of  what  he  accomplished  with  it, 
was  essentially  a  state  of  mind  even 
more  markedly  than  it  was  an  agent 
of  accomplishment.  And  to  us  in 
the  Century  it  was  exhibited  mainly, 
perhaps,  in  the  guise  of  an  extraor- 
dinary alertness. 

He  was  alertness  incarnate.  His 
senses  seemed  sharpened  to  a  degree 
seldom  exemplified  in  persons  con- 
fined largely  —  as  was  necessarily  his 
lot  —  to  the  society  of  their  inferiors 
in  interest,  experience  and  capacity. 
Any  material  served  him  to  file  the 
edge  of  an  appreciation  that  little 
escaped  and  nothing  dulled.  His  per- 
ceptions seemed  never  to  sleep.  It 
was  interesting  to  observe  him  ob- 
serve. He  always  detected  your  do- 
216 


William  Crary  Brownell 

ing  so,  and  always  amusedly  played 
the  game  with  you.  Part  of  his 
genius,  to  which  all  of  his  friends 
testify,  for  friendship  (which  has  been 
defined  as  rien  que  s  entendre)  re- 
sided in  this  alertness,  in  virtue  of 
which  he  *' always  understood."  Of- 
ten before  you  had  completed  your 
communication — a  demi-mot — he  had 
been  there — everywhere — before;  but 
he  was  none  the  less  alive  to  the 
nuances  of  your  report  of  the  coun- 
try. He  simply  could  not  be  bored. 
His  faculties  were  in  a  constant 
state  of  functioning  and  one  excuse 
seemed  as  good  as  another  for  their 
exercise.  He  saw  **good  in  every- 
thing "  when  it  was  kind  to  see  it,  but 
his  acuteness  preserved  him  from  il- 
lusions. Such  as  he  had  he  cherished, 
rather  wittingly,  one  guesses,  and  they 
were  the  mirage  of  his  fancy,  which 
was  prodigious,  and  never  due  to 
defective   vision. 

217 


King  at  the  Century- 
Was  there  ever  so  good  a  talker  ? 
And  why  was  he  so  good  ?  I  fancy 
because,  for  one  reason,  he  never 
forgot  himself  in  his  subject.  He 
never,  in  fact,  forgot  anything.  Every- 
thing in  the  environment,  whatever 
the  environment  might  be,  lay  cosily 
in  his  mind  in  a  state  of  the  most 
complete  realization.  Nothing  ever 
possessed  him ;  so  far  as  his  own 
purposes  went  he  was  master  of  all 
his  material.  Inattention  was  impos- 
sible in  his  presence.  He  noted  it 
with  the  quickness  of  the  predatory 
eye  and  charmed  it  into  interest  at 
once.  To  quote  words  applied  to  a 
different  spirit :  "He  was  a  man  to 
whom  the  ball  of  conversation  was 
really  a  ball,  and  not  an  anvil  or  a  bar- 
rel of  flour."  But  though  he  loathed 
the  didactic,  he  loved  discussion  ;  in 
fact,  one  of  his  fondnesses  was  to  start 
a  topic.  Whatever  your  mood,  some- 
thing penetrating  from  him  would 
218 


William  Crary  Brownell 

awaken  reverie  into  active  thought, 
or  something  paradoxical  electrify 
lethargy  itself. 

Paradox  perhaps  enjoyed  the  he- 
gemony of  his  mental  states.  If  he 
can  be  said  ever  to  have  leaned  on 
anything  among  the  multitude  of 
phenomena  that  he  touched,  paradox 
may  be  called  his  reliance.  He  had 
an  undoubted  predilection  for  its  un- 
doubted stimulus  —  and  indeed  it  is 
not  an  anodyne  ;  but  his  distinction 
in  this  respect  was  that  he  never 
pressed  it.  To  have  succeeded  in  per- 
suading you  to  share  it  would  have 
sapped  his  interest  in  it.  He  never 
expected  discussion  to  lead  to  any- 
thing. Sometimes  indeed  he  would 
not  permit  it  to.  It  was  its  art  that 
attracted  him.  He  enjoyed  *'  travel, 
not  arriving."  I  fancy  he  thought 
that  things  capable  of  settlement  had 
been  settled  long  since.  Conclusions 
might  have  had  an  anterior  evolution, 
219 


King  at  the  Century 

but  Its  stages  doubtless  seemed  to 
him  of  almost  geologic  length  and 
ancientness.  Those  he  reached  were 
satisfactorily  airy.  Such  as  his  de- 
cision, after  long  reflection,  that  **  a 
painter  should  always  paint  in  his 
third  manner."  The  deeper  ones  he 
never,  in  general  talk  at  least,  touched 
upon.  His  tact  was  unfailing  here. 
His  religion,  for  example,  he  said, 
was  like  his  teeth,  both  were  in- 
herited and  both,  so  far  as  he  knew, 
were  sound.  Nor  was  he  one  of 
those  talkers  who  will  listen  with 
pleasure,  but  if  you  are  silent  talk 
themselves  unremittingly — the  neces- 
sity of  talk  by  some  one  being  their 
subconscious  major  premise.  He 
made  you  talk.  If  you  had  no  sub- 
ject he  supplied  one  and  made  you 
interested  in  it.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  would  not  only  quite  as  readily 
talk  about  your  subject,  but  contrive 
to  give  you  the  notion  that  he  was 


William  Crary  Brownell 

eliciting  what  you  had  to  say.  It 
was  a  part  of  his  inexhaustible  en- 
tertainingness  that  he  made  you 
feel  comfortable  and  copious,  as  if 
you  were  a  real  contributor  to  the 
conversation. 

One  fancied  him  tingling  with  con- 
sciousness, so  thoroughly  aware  of 
himself  and  what  he  was  doing,  how 
he  was  appearing,  as  to  produce  the 
happiest  possible  effect.  Inspired  by 
native  tact  and  educated  taste  and  a 
large  social  experience  he  marshaled 
his  forces  and  conducted  his  cam- 
paign with  an  easy  vigilance  that  ran 
no  risks  and  made  no  blunders.  Of 
course  this  implied  complete  freedom 
from  the  embarrassment  of  self-con- 
sciousness  on  one  side  and  from  any 
pose  or  other  exhibition  of  vanity  on 
the  other.  If  he  took  an  interest 
in  surprising,  even  in  startling  you, 
as  undeniably  he  did,  it  was  an  in- 
terest quite  impersonal  and  artistic, 

221 


King  at  the  Century 

Nor,  I  think,  did  he  expect  you  to 
experience  any  other  —  certainly  not 
to  be  led  very  far  astray  by  any  in- 
tensity of  interest  or  to  be  perma- 
nently disoriented  by  credulity  pushed 
to  the  point  of  naivetd.  To  his  alert- 
ness and  agility  of  mind  any  open- 
mouthed  contemplative  resting  in  the 
mere  fact — whatever  the  marvel  he 
was  divulging  —  must  have  seemed 
stagnant,  rather  than  active,  apprecia- 
tion. In  proof  of  which  one  has  only 
to  recall  the  fact  that  the  phenomena 
he  was  fond  of  relating  were  always 
of  an  illustrative  rather  than  of  a  final 
character.  Occasionally,  perhaps,  he 
left  you  to  divine  their  bearings,  their 
ulterior  significance.  But  that  they 
had  such  was  the  source  of  their  in- 
terest for  him. 

For,  after  all,  his  extraordinary  ac- 
tivity of  mind  was  something  more 
constructive  than  mere  alertness  — 
however   multifariously   exhibited  — 

222 


William  Crary  Brownell 

implies.  His  alertness  insensibly 
passed  over  into  the  realm  of  the 
imagination  and  blended  beautifully 
with  this  rarest  of  faculties.  His 
imagination  was,  as  Mr.  Gary  has 
discriminatingly  pointed  out,  "  his 
dominant,  at  moments  his  dominat- 
ing, quality."  At  moments  assuredly 
It  held  him  quite  enthralled  within 
an  almost  hypnotic  control,  and  he 
followed  Its  beckoning  with  the  con- 
fident eagerness  of  ecstasy.  But  for 
the  most  part  he  was  on  terms  of 
complete  understanding  with  it  and 
checked  and  tested  its  suggestions 
with  the  sagacity  that  gave  its  pro- 
nounced scientific  turn  to  his  mind. 
It  was  largely  a  matter  of  the  material 
on  which  his  imagination — the  con- 
stant factor  In  his  equation — worked. 
At  work  It  always  was.  And,  ex- 
ercised on  serious  and  important 
substance,  it  reached  commanding 
heights.  It  led  him  to  very  solid 
223 


King  at  the  Century 

achievements  in  science.  And  in  the 
field  of  letters  it  was  the  inspiration  of 
one  of  the  very  few  books  that  have 
a  clear  title  to  be  called  unique.  The 
Helmet  of  Mambrino  is  a  charming, 
an  original,  thing,  and  a  striking  illus- 
tration of  his  versatility.  But  it  is  a 
trifle  compared  with  his  Mountaineer- 
ing in  the  Sierra  Nevada,  which  is, 
in  its  way  and  considering  its  propor- 
tions and  necessary  limits,  a  work  of 
imagination  of  a  very  high  order.  It 
is  the  portrait  of  a  period  and  place 
and  people  painted  with  the  firmest 
strokes,  the  individual  impressions  on 
which  it  is  based  generalized  into 
typical  interest  and  focussed  into  vi- 
tality by  the  writer's  imagination  as 
by  a  sun-glass.  It  is  a  book  of  which 
it  is  difficult  to  speak  without  ex- 
aggeration. It  stands  so  completely 
by  itself  that  it  is  hard  to  find  the 
comparison  that  fits  it.  And  it  is  a 
significant    thing,    I    think,   that  the 


William  Crary  Brownell 

qualities  which  naturally  and  unaf- 
fectedly produced  an  imaginative  mas- 
terpiece in  a  field  merely  collateral  to 
the  field  of  its  author's  specific  work 
in  life,  should  be  the  same  qualities 
which  attached  and  endeared  him  in 
an  extraordinary  degree  to  the  varied 
and  appreciative  but  not  unexacting 
membership  of  the  Century  Associa- 
tion. It  is  indirectly  a  demonstration 
that  he  gave  us  his  best,  and  what 
that  was  has,  since  his  untimely  death, 
been  already  too  poignantly  missed 
ever  to  be  forgotten. 


225 


Century  Necrological   Note 

Edward  Gary 


227 


Century  Necrological  Note* 

CLARENCE  KING  was  bom  in 
Newport,  R.  I.,  January  6th, 
1842,  his  father  being  James  King,  of 
the  old  China  firm  of  King,  Olyphant, 
&  Co.  He  was  prepared  for  the 
classical  course  at  Yale,  but  chose 
the  Scientific  School  and  was  gradu- 
ated in  1862.  Almost  from  the  por- 
tals of  college,  he  and  his  college 
mate,  James  T.  Gardiner, — par  no- 
bile,  —  set  out,  in  the  spring  of  1 863, 
to  cross  the  Plains  with  an  emigrant 
train  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  the 
whole  interior  of  the  continent,  King 
making,  during  the  four  months'  jour- 
ney on  horseback,  careful  geological 

*  Reprinted  from  the  Report  of  the  Board 
of  Management  of  the  Century  Association 
for  the  year  1901. 

229 


Century  Necrological  Note 

observations  and  notes.  The  experi- 
ence probably  shaped  the  course  of 
his  scientific  career.  During  the  next 
three  years  he  was  engaged  on  the 
geological  survey  of  California  under 
Prof.  J.  D.  Whitney,  with  Prof. 
William  H.  Brewer  in  charge  of  the 
field  work.  He  was  an  assistant  to 
Prof.  Brewer  in  the  exploration  of 
the  Northern  Sierras  and  the  region 
about  Mount  Shasta ;  in  an  explora- 
tion of  the  southern  part  of  Sierra 
Nevada,  in  which  King  discovered 
and  named  Mount  Whitney  and 
Mount  Tyndall ;  and  with  Gardiner 
made  a  geological  and  topographical 
survey  of  the  Yosemite  Valley.  With 
the  same  companion  he  undertook 
and  partially  completed  a  survey  of 
Arizona,  but  the  party  was  obliged 
to  give  up  the  work  on  account  of 
the  attacks  of  the  Apaches.  The 
next  summer,  1866,  King  and  Gar- 
diner made  a  survey  of  the  Sierra 
230 


Edward  Cary 

Nevada  east    and  southeast   of   the 
Yosemite  Valley. 

It  was  during  this  trip  that  they 
discussed  the  idea  of  creating,  under 
the  United  States  Government,  a 
geological  and  topographical  sur- 
vey, crossing  the  country  from  Cali- 
fornia to  the  eastern  slope  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  and  making  a 
geological  and  topographical  cross- 
section  of  the  whole  system  of  the 
Cordillera  of  Western  America.  The 
winter  of  1866-67  King  spent  at 
Washington,  and  succeeded  in  inter- 
esting General  Humphreys,  Chief  of 
Engineers,  and  the  Government  offi- 
cers and  members  of  Congress  in  his 
plans  to  such  an  extent  that  the 
Geological  Survey  of  the  Fortieth 
Parallel  was  authorized  and  he  was 
placed  in  charge,  reporting  to  Gen- 
eral Humphreys.  The  work  was  be- 
gun in  1867  and  completed  in  1872, 
and  several  years  were  spent  in  the 
231 


Century  Necrological  Note 

study  of  the  facts  and  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  report,  which  remains  the 
record  of  the  most  important  scien- 
tific work  of  its  kind  up  to  that  time 
undertaken  and  the  foundation  of 
much  that  has  followed.  In  1878 
the  United  States  Geological  Survey 
was  organized,  and  King  was  made 
its  first  Chief,  serving  until  the  close 
of  1 88 1.  In  the  eighteen  years  since 
he  had  entered  on  his  work  on  the 
Pacific  Slope,  years  of  untiring  activity 
and  study,  he  had  made  brilliant  and 
substantial  contributions  to  science. 

He  had  also  found  time  for  some 
notable  work  as  a  geological  and 
mining  expert  in  the  famous  Mari- 
posa mines,  in  the  Comstock  mines, 
and  in  the  exposure,  made  with 
singfular  acuteness  and  swiftness,  of 
the  **  salted  "  diamond  fields  of  Wyo- 
ming. The  rest  of  his  life  was 
devoted  to  the  exercise  of  his  pro- 
fession, in  which  he  attained  emi- 
232 


Edward  Cary 

nence.  But  he  cherished  the  hope 
of  completing  an  authoritative  study 
of  the  physics  of  the  early  globe, 
on  which  he  spent  much  time  and 
labor  and  money.  He  undertook  a 
series  of  difficult  and  elaborate  ex- 
periments to  determine  the  action  of 
the  primal  constituents  of  the  early 
globe  under  the  conditions  of  heat 
and  pressure  assumed  to  exist,  when 
the  material  of  the  earth  was  sepa- 
rated from  the  sun.  These  were 
interrupted  by  business  reverses  and 
ill  health  some  eight  years  since  : 
but  he  had  gone  far  enough  in  his 
investigations  to  make  a  reasoned 
estimate  of  the  age  of  the  earth, 
which  was  accepted  by  physicists 
in  England  and  Europe,  Lord  Kelvin 
among  them,  as  more  nearly  defin- 
itive than  any  other. 

What  King  might  have  been  had 
he  turned  to   literature  is  shown  in 
his    scientific    studies    and     reports, 
233 


Century  Necrological  Note 

models  of  clear  statement  of  clear 
thinking  on  difficult  subjects ;  in  his 
youthful  sketches  of  Mountaineering 
in  the  Sierra  Nevada,  and  in  a  few 
fugitive  articles  such  as  The  Helmet 
of  Mambrino,  of  which  Mr.  Stedman 
conclusively  says  that  '*  any  writer 
might  be  glad  to  be  judged  by  it." 

Had  he  lived  a  few  days  longer, 
King  would  have  been  threescore ; 
but  we  think  of  him, —  so  vigorous, 
when  last  he  was  with  us,  was  his 
bearing,  so  bright  his  winning  glance, 
so  swift  and  kindling  his  unique 
intelligence, —  as  Milton  thought  of 
his  friend  King : 

"  Lycidas  is  dead,  dead  ere  his  prime, 
Young  Lycidas,  and  hath  not  left  his  peer." 

It  is  more  than  a  quarter  of  a 
century  ago  that  he  joined  the  Club  ; 
a  little  while  since  he  described  it 
to  an  enquiring  foreign  visitor  as 
**  the  rag,  tag  and  bobtail  of  all  there 
234 


Edward  Gary 

is  best  in  our  country."  The  phrase 
is  instinct  with  his  gay  veracity  of 
paradox.  He  was  himself  a  blend 
of  varied  qualities  and  gifts,  that 
were  not  always  ready  to  keep  the 
peace  one  with  another,  but  the  col- 
lective manifestation  of  which  was  to 
his  fellows  a  constant  joy.  The  talk 
he  made  or  evoked  may  be  equalled 
by  those  who  are  to  come  after  ;  it 
can  never  be  matched.  Its  range 
was  literally  incalculable.  It  was 
impossible  to  foresee  at  what  point 
his  tangential  fancy  would  change  its 
course.  From  the  true  rhythm  of 
Creole  gumbo  to  the  verse  of  Theoc- 
ritus, from  the  origin  of  the  latest 
mot  to  the  age  of  the  globe,  from 
the  soar  or  slump  of  the  day's  market 
to  the  method  of  Lippo  Lippi,  from 
the  lightest  play  on  words  to  the 
subtlest  philosophy,  he  passed  with 
buoyant  step  and  head  erect,  some- 
times with  audacity  that  invited 
235 


Century  Necrological  Note 

disaster,  often  with  profound  penetra- 
tion and  with  the  informing  flash 
of  genius.  It  is  but  a  suggestion  of 
his  rare  equipment  to  say  that  in 
his  talk,  as  in  his  work,  his  imagina- 
tion was  his  dominant,  at  moments 
his  dominating,  quaHty.  Intense, 
restless,  wide-reaching,  nourished  by 
much  reading,  trained  in  the  exercise 
of  an  exact  and  exacting  profession, 
stimulated  by  commerce  with  many 
lands  and  races,  it  played  incessantly 
on  the  topic  of  the  moment  and  on 
the  remotest  and  most  complex  pro- 
blems of  the  earth  and  the  dwellers 
thereon.  And  within  a  nature  bril- 
liant and  efficient  beyond  all  common 
limits,  glowed  the  modest  and  steady 
light  of  a  kindness  the  most  unfail- 
ing and  delicate.  The  good  one 
hand  did  he  let  not  the  other  know  • 
both  were  always  busy,  laying  in 
many  lives  the  foundations  of  tender 
and  lasting  remembrance. 
236 


King's   "Mountaineering 

Edward  Gary 


237 


King's   "  Mountaineering 


>>  Ht 


CLARENCE  KING'S  Mountain- 
eering  in  the  Sierra  Nevada 
is  the  single  volume  of  literary  work 
which  this  strong  and  gifted  man 
permitted  himself  in  his  active  career 
as  a  scientist.  Most  of  the  sketches, 
fourteen  in  number,  were  originally 
published  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  in 
the  sixties,  and  four  editions  of  the 
book  were  brought  out  by  James  R. 
Osgood  &  Co.,  then  publishers  of 
that  magazine,  previous  to  1874. 
Nine  of  the  sketches  bear  date  pre- 
vious to  1866,  when  King  was  in  his 

*  Reprinted  from  The  New  York  Times, 
Saturday  Supplement,  January  10,  1903.  A 
review  of  the  fifth  edition  of  Mountaineering 
in  the  Sierra  Nevada^  by  Clarence  King. 
New  York  :  Charles  Scribner's  Sons.  1902. 
$1.50. 

239 


King's  ''Mountaineering" 

twenty-fifth  year,  and  one  gets  a  bet- 
ter notion  of  the  writer  by  keeping 
this  fact  in  mind.  It  is  revealing  to 
remember  that  the  intercourse  of  the 
reader  is  with  a  lad  but  two  years 
out  of  the  Sheffield  School  at  Yale. 
It  is  significant,  too,  of  the  reach 
and  energy  of  his  remarkable  nature 
that  he  so  early  had  sought  the  scene 
of  his  work  and  study  on  the  Pacific 
Slope  with  the  purpose  of  making 
himself  acquainted  with  the  geog- 
raphy and  the  geology  of  the  route 
across  the  continent  and  had  trav- 
ersed that  route  in  an  emigrant  train. 
On  the  journey  he  gathered  the  in- 
formation on  which  was  based  the 
plan,  afterward  carried  out  under  his 
guidance,  for  a  geologic  and  topo- 
graphic survey  of  the  fortieth  paral- 
allel,  a  cross  section  of  the  whole 
system  of  the  Cordillera  of  Western 
America,  probably  the  most  impor- 
tant single  contribution  ever  made  to 
240 


Edward  Gary 

the  scientific  knowledge  of  the  conti- 
nent. And  this  in  turn  was  the  basis 
of  the  formation  of  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey,  organized  in  1878, 
of  which  he  was  for  four  years  the 
Ghief.  In  these  papers,  then,  we 
have  the  first  fruits  of  King's  pecul- 
iarly rich  and  variously  endowed  in- 
tellect. 

The  first  paper.  The  Range,  was 
probably  written  latest  as  an  intro- 
duction to  the  others  :  at  least,  the 
first  half  of  it,  which  is  a  succinct 
statement  of  the  geologic  history  of 
the  western  part  of  the  continent 
from  the  base  of  the  Sierra  Nevada 
to  the  Pacific.  We  wish  it  were  prac- 
ticable to  quote  these  dozen  pages, 
they  are  so  satisfactory  as  the  pre- 
sentation in  lucid  form  and  logical 
order  of  a  mighty  chapter  in  the 
records  of  the  planet.  The  reader 
with  the  slightest  equipment  of  sci- 
entific imagination  rises  from  their 
16 

241 


King's  ** Mountaineering'' 

perusal  with  the  progressive  changes 
in  the  vast  dynamic  drama  clearly 
and  impressively  portrayed  on  the 
tablets  of  his  memory.  The  region 
to  which  they  relate  ceases  to  be  a 
mere  stretch  of  the  earth's  surface, 
varied  with  mountain  and  plain.  It 
becomes  the  present  stage  of  the  re- 
sults of  forces  more  than  world-old, 
forces  that  were  not  new  even  when 
the  planet  had  not  yet  been  gathered 
from  the  nebulae,  and  which  are  still 
working  their  tireless  will  toward  fur- 
ther results  that  may  not  be  imagined. 
The  vivid  interest  and  the  splendid 
scope  of  the  impression  thus  be- 
stowed on  the  mind  of  the  reader  are 
enhanced  by  and,  in  no  small  de- 
gree, are  due  to,  King's  remarkable 
literary  gift. 

There  is  in  these  pages  a  vital  har- 
mony between  the  subject  matter  and 
the  form.     It   cannot  be   analyzed ; 
much  less  can  it  be  described  or  ac- 
242 


Edward  Gary 

counted  for ;  least  of  all  can  it  be  re- 
sisted. It  stimulates  and  energizes 
while  it  charms  the  mind.  It  gives, 
in  its  own  way  and  in  its  field,  an  in- 
tellectual reaction  akin  to  that  given 
by  certain  passages  of  Shakespeare 
in  which  he  explores  the  depths  of 
human  consciousness,  and  every  in- 
flection, every  cadence  thrills  with  the 
solemnity  and  the  vastness  of  the  sub- 
ject. If  any  of  our  readers  think  that 
this  is  an  extravagant  suggestion,  we 
invite  them — and  if  they  accept  the 
invitation  they  will  thank  us  for  it — 
to  read  the  paper  we  refer  to,  and, 
after  reading  the  whole  of  the  little 
volume,  to  return  to  this  chapter  and 
test  the  renewed  impression. 

Quotation  is  possible  only  in  limited 
amount,  and  it  must  necessarily  be 
somewhat  misleading,  since  it  cannot 
give  the  effect  of  the  whole.  But 
we  venture  a  brief  passage  describ- 
ing the  volcanic  period  intervening 
243 


King's  ''Mountaineering" 

between  the  uplifting  of  the  Sierra  at 
the  ocean's  edge  and  the  glacial  pe- 
riod, including  the  appearance  of  the 
Coast  Ranges  : 

"  In  the  late  tertiary  period  a  chap- 
ter of  very  remarkable  events  oc- 
curred. For  a  second  time  the  evenly 
laid  beds  of  the  sea-bottom  were 
crumpled  by  the  sinking  of  the  earth. 
The  ocean  flowed  back  into  deeper 
and  narrower  limits,  .  and,  fronting 
the  Sierra  Nevada,  appeared  the  pres- 
ent system  of  Coast  Ranges.  The 
intermediate  depression,  or  sea-trough 
as  I  like  to  call  it,  is  the  valley  of 
California,  and  therefore  a  more  re- 
cent continental  feature  than  the 
Sierra  Nevada.  At  once,  then,  from 
the  folded  rocks  of  the  Coast  Ranges, 
from  the  Sierra  summits  and  the  in- 
land plateaus,  and  from  numberless 
vents  caused  by  the  fierce  dynamical 
action,  there  poured  out  a  general 
244 


Edward  Cary 

deluge  of  melted  rock.  From  the 
bottom  of  the  sea  sprang  up  those 
fountains  of  lava  whose  cooled  mate- 
rial forms  many  of  the  islands  of  the 
Pacific,  and  all  along  the  coast  of 
America,  like  a  system  of  answering 
beacons,  blazed  up  volcanic  chimneys. 
The  rent  mountains  glowed  with  out- 
pourings of  molten  stone.  Sheets  of 
lava  poured  down  the  slopes  of  the 
Sierra,  covering  an  immense  propor- 
tion of  its  surface  ;  only  the  high 
granites  and  metamorphic  peaks 
reaching  above  the  deluge.  Rivers 
and  lakes  floated  up  in  a  cloud  of 
steam  and  were  gone  for  ever.  The 
misty  sky  of  these  volcanic  days 
glowed  with  innumerable  lurid  reflec- 
tions, and  at  intervals  along  the  crest 
of  the  range  great  cones  arose,  black- 
ening the  sky  with  their  plumes  of 
mineral  smoke.  At  length,  having 
exhausted  themselves,  the  volcanoes 
burned  lower  and  lower,  and  at  last 
245 


King's  ''Mountaineering*' 

by  far  the  greater  number  went  out 
altogether.  With  a  tendency  to  ex- 
tremes which  'development'  geolo- 
gists would  hesitate  to  admit,  nature 
passed  under  the  dominion  of  ice  and 
snow." 

As  an  example  of  style  of  King  in 
quite  a  distinct  direction,  we  allow 
ourselves  one  other  short  quotation, 
a  description  of  the  effect  of  the  view 
from  the  top  of  Mount  Whitney : 

"  The  day  was  cloudless  and  the 
sky,  milder  than  is  common  over  these 
extreme  heights,  warmed  to  a  mellow 
glow  and  rested  in  softening  beauty 
over  minaret  and  dome.  Air  and 
light  seemed  melted  together,  even 
the  wild  rocks  springing  up  all  about 
us  wore  an  aspect  of  aerial  delicacy. 
Around  the  wide  panorama,  half  low 
desert,  half  rugged  granite  moun- 
tains, each  detail  was  observable,  but 
246 


n  a  Mountain  Camp 


Edward  Cary 

a  uniform  luminous  medium  toned 
without  obscuring  the  field  of  vision. 
That  fearful  sense  of  wreck  and  deso- 
lation, of  a  world  crushed  into  frag- 
ments, of  the  ice  chisel  which,  unseen, 
has  wrought  this  strange  mountain 
sculpture,  all  the  sensations  of  power 
and  tragedy  I  have  invariably  felt  be- 
fore on  high  peaks  were  totally  forgot- 
ten. Now  it  was  like  an  opal  world, 
submerged  in  a  sea  of  dreamy  light, 
down  through  whose  motionless, 
transparent  depths  I  became  con- 
scious of  sunken  ranges,  great  hollows 
of  undiscernible  depth,  reefs  of  pearly 
granite,  as  clear  and  delicate  as  the 
coral  banks  in  a  tropical  ocean.  It 
was  not  like  a  haze  in  the  lower  world, 
which  veils  away  distance  into  a  soft 
vanishing  perspective ;  there  was  no 
mist,  no  vagueness,  no  loss  of  form  or 
fading  of  outline  —  only  a  strange 
harmonizing  of  earth  and  air.  Shad- 
ows were  faint,  yet  defined,  lights 
249 


King's  *' Mountaineering" 

visible,  but  most  exquisitely  mod- 
ulated. The  hollow  blue  which  over 
Mount  Tyndall  led  the  eye  up  into 
vacant  solitudes  was  here  replaced  by 
a  sense  of  sheltering  nearness,  a  cer- 
tain dove-colored  obscurity  in  the 
atmosphere  which  seemed  to  filter 
the  sunlight  of  all  its  harsher  proper- 
ties." 

The  reader  can  gather  from  these 
imperfect  examples  what  is  the  charm 
of  King's  descriptive  writing.  His 
narrative  is  not  less  attractive.  We 
know  of  no  writing  devoted  to  climb- 
ing that  Is  more  satisfying,  that  brings 
the  thing  more  clearly  to  the  view  or 
enlists  more  closely  the  sympathetic 
interest.  A  considerable  part  of  the 
book  is  occupied  with  personal  adven- 
ture and  with  character  sketches, 
which  are  excellent  in  their  way.  No 
tale  of  escape  from  robbers  was  ever 
more  thrillingly  and  compellingly  told 
250 


Edward  Cary 

than  **  Kaweah's  Run."  Few  more 
realizable  pictures  of  strange  human 
life  were  ever  painted  than  those  of 
the  Newtys  of  Pike  and  the  artist  of 
Cut-off  Copples's.  Indeed,  quite  apart 
from  its  rare  literary  merit  which  jus- 
tifies its  claim  as  an  American  classic, 
and  the  peculiar  vividness  and  scope 
of  scientific  statement,  the  book  has 
a  unique  value  for  the  light  it  throws 
on  a  vanished  life  in  a  region  at  once 
important  and  picturesque. 


251 


Clarence  King — Geologist 

Samuel  Franklin  Emmons 


253' 


Clarence  King — Geologist  * 

CLARENCE  KING  was  born  at 
Newport,  Rhode  Island,  on 
the  6th  day  of  January,  1842.  He 
was  the  only  son  of  James  Rivers 
and  Florence  Little  King.  His  an- 
cestors were  among  the  early  settlers 
of  New  England,  and  all,  as  far 
as  known,  of  English  extraction. 
Among  them  were  an  unusual  num- 
ber of  cultivated  men,  graduates 
of  colleges,  or  distinguished  in  the 
learned  professions,  in  whom  can  be 
found  traces  of  the  many  and  varied 
accomplishments  in  science,  litera- 
ture and  the  arts  that  were  so 
happily  combined  in  their  brilliant 
descendant. 

*A  partial  reprint  of  an  article  published  in 
the  American  Journal  of  Science^  March,  1902. 
255 


Clarence  King — Geologist 

Daniel  King,  the  emigrant,  who 
came  to  Lynn,  Massachusetts,  in 
1637,  was  a  younger  son  of  Ralphe 
Kinge  of  Watford,  Hertfordshire, 
England.  His  great-grandson,  Ben- 
jamin, moved  from  Salem,  Massa- 
chusetts, to  Newport,  Rhode  Island, 
and,  according  to  family  tradition, 
was  a  man  of  scientific  tastes,  who 
occupied  himself  with  philosophical 
instruments  and  assisted  Benjamin 
Franklin  in  his  early  experiments  in 
electricity.  Samuel  King  of  Newport, 
son  of  the  latter  and  great-grand- 
father of  Clarence,  was  a  portrait- 
painter  of  merit,  who  numbered 
among  his  pupils  Washington  All- 
ston,  and  Malbone,  the  miniaturist. 
On  his  mother's  side,  one  of  King's 
great-grandfathers,  William  Little, 
was  a  graduate  of  Yale  in  1777,  and 
received  an  honorary  degree  from 
Harvard  in  1786.  Another,  Ashur 
Robbins,  graduated  from  Yale  in 
256 


Samuel  Franklin  Emmons 

1772,  was  United  States  Senator 
from  Rhode  Island  1825-39,  and 
received  the  degree  of  LL.D.  from 
Brown  in  1835.  His  grandfather, 
William  Little,  Jr.,  who  died  early 
in  life,  was  noted  as  a  linguist  and 
a  scholar.  His  grandmother,  Mrs. 
Sophia  Little,  poet  and  philanthro- 
pist, was  a  woman  of  remarkable 
public  spirit,  energy  and  decision  of 
character,  who  retained  her  mental 
and  physical  vigor  in  a  most  remark- 
able degree  up  to  the  time  of  her 
death  in  1893,  in  her  ninety-fifth 
year. 

His  immediate  King  ancestors 
were  pioneer  merchants  in  the  then 
highly  remunerative  China  trade,  his 
grandfather,  Samuel  Vernon  King, 
having  been  as  early  as  1803  ^  part- 
ner in  the  commercial  house  of  Tal- 
bot, Olyphant  &  King.  Four  of  the 
latter's  sons  succeeded  him  in  that 
business,  the  house  later  becoming 
257 


Clarence  King — Geologist 

known  as  King  &  Company.  James, 
the  second  son,  married  at  the  early 
age  of  twenty-one,  and  was  obliged  to 
leave  his  young  wife  before  the  birth 
of  his  first  child,  Clarence,  in  order 
to  take  the  place  of  his  elder  brother 
in  China.  By  a  singular  fatality, 
three  out  of  the  four  brothers  died  in 
the  far  East,  and  the  house  of  King 
&  Company  became  bankrupt  during 
the  crisis  of  1857  through  the  loss  of 
one  of  the  company's  steamers,  which, 
under  the  charge  of  a  confidential 
English  clerk  (also  named  King)  was 
carrying  a  large  amount  of  specie  to 
meet  their  liabilities  at  another  port. 
In  this  disaster  was  involved  the 
property  of  James,  which  had  re- 
mained in  the  firm  since  his  death  at 
Amoy,  China,  in  1848. 

The  young  mother,  left  a  widow  at 

twenty-two,   devoted   herself   to   the 

education  of  her  only  son,  learning 

with  an  inherited  facility  both  classical 

258 


Samuel  Franklin  Emmons 

and  modern  languages  that  she  might 
teach  them  in  turn  to  him,  and  thus 
was  founded  a  close  intellectual  com- 
panionship which  lasted  until  his 
death. 

King's  early  boyhood  days  were 
spent  at  Newport,  but  he  received 
his  principal  school  education  in  the 
endowed  high-school  at  Hartford. 

As  a  very  young  child  he  showed 
symptoms  of  a  decided  bent  toward 
the  study  of  natural  phenomena, 
which  was  further  developed  during 
long  summer  vacations,  spent  in  fish- 
ing, hunting  and  botanizing  in  the 
Green  Mountains. 

In  1859  1^^  became  a  member  of 
the  Sheffield  Scientific  School,  and 
during  the  two  following  years  ac- 
quired a  systematic  grounding  in  the 
sciences  of  geology  and  mineralogy 
under  the  inspiring  teachings  of  James 
D.  Dana  and  George  J.  Brush,  at 
that  time  their  foremost  exponents. 
259 


Clarence  King — Geologist 

Amonor  his  fellow-students  who  have 
since  become  eminent  in  their  respec- 
tive professions  were  O.  C.  Marsh, 
Arnold  Hague  and  Samuel  Parsons. 
He  graduated  in  1862  with  the  de- 
gree of  B.S.,  being  among  the  first 
students  of  the  Scientific  School  to 
receive  a  degree  from  the  faculty  of 
Yale  College. 

During  his  college  course,  he  was 
a  leader  among  his  mates  in  athletic 
sports,  as  well  as  in  study  of  nature, 
being  captain  of  a  baseball  team  and 
stroke  oar  of  a  racing  crew. 

During  the  winter  following  his 
graduation,  he  was,  for  a  time,  a  stu- 
dent of  glaciology  under  Agassiz,  and 
later  became  a  devotee  of  the  Rus- 
kinian  schools  of  art  study  under  the 
leadership  of  Russell  Sturgis. 

In    May,    1863,   in    company   with 

his  Hfelong  friend,  James  T.  Gardiner, 

whose  health  had  broken  down  under 

too    close   devotion    to   his   studies, 

260 


Samuel  Franklin  Emmons 

King  started  on  a  horseback  trip 
across  the  continent.  Upon  reaching 
St.  Joseph,  Missouri,  then  the  west- 
ern limit  of  railroad  communications, 
they  were  invited  to  join  the  party 
of  a  well-to-do  emigrant  family,  whose 
favor  King  had  unconsciously  gained 
by  his  characteristically  tender  care 
for  their  children  during  the  latter 
part  of  the  railroad  journey.  Their 
line  of  march  followed,  in  general, 
what  was  known  as  the  Old  Fremont 
route,  up  the  North  Platte  river  and 
the  Humboldt  river  in  Nevada.  The 
rate  of  travel  of  such  a  party  was 
necessarily  very  slow,  and  the  young 
explorers,  being  mounted  on  good 
horses  of  their  own,  were  able  to 
make  excursions  into  the  neighboring 
mountains  for  the  purposes  of  ex- 
ploration and  study,  which,  owing  to 
the  hostility  of  the  Indians,  were  not 
always  without  danger. 

After  having  crossed  the  deserts  of 
261 


Clarence  King — Geologist 

Nevada,  they  left  the  party  to  visit 
the  then  famous  Comstock  Lode.  On 
the  night  of  their  arrival  in  Virginia 
City,  the  house  in  which  they  were 
staying  caught  fire,  and  all  their  be- 
longings were  lost.  Nothing  daunted. 
King  went  to  work  at  days'  wages  in 
a  quartz  mill  to  earn  sufficient  funds 
to  enable  them  to  continue  their 
journey.  In  a  few  weeks  they  started 
again,  crossing  the  Sierra  Nevada  on 
foot,  and  proceeding  by  boat  from 
Sacramento  to  San  Francisco.  On 
this  trip  an  incident  which  led  to 
their  making  the  acquaintance  of 
Prof.  William  H.  Brewer,  then  as- 
sistant on  the  Geological  Survey  of 
California,  proved  to  be  the  turning- 
point  in  their  careers. 

King's  professional  work  as  a  ge- 
ologist may  be  said  to  have  com- 
menced with  his  acceptance  of  the 
position  of  volunteer  assistant  ge- 
ologist on  the  Geological  Survey  of 
262 


Samuel  Franklin  Emmons 

California  under  Prof.  J.  D.  Whitney. 
During  the  three  years  that  this  con- 
nection lasted  the  work  was  largely 
exploratory,  for  as  yet  even  the  ge- 
ography of  the  country  was  but  imper- 
fectly known.  It  thus  gave  full  scope 
to  the  enterprise,  energy  and  powers 
of  endurance  that  characterized  him 
during  his  whole  life.  In  spite  of 
his  youth,  he  soon  became  a  leader, 
especially  in  the  exploration  of  the 
high  mountain  mass  of  the  southern 
Sierras  discovered  by  him,  whose 
highest  peak.  Mount  Whitney,  still 
holds  the  palm  as  the  highest  point 
within  the  United  States  (excluding 
Alaska).  During  the  winter  of  1 865- 
66  he  also  made  an  exploration  of  the 
desert  regions  of  southern  California 
and  Arizona  as  scientific  aide  to 
General  McDowell,  which  involved 
much  hardship  and  no  little  danger. 

Of     even    more    importance     for 
his    future    work    was    the    familiar 
263 


Clarence  King — Geologist 

knowledge  of  the  different  varieties  of 
volcanic  rocks,  acquired  during  field 
studies  around  the  extinct  volcanoes 
of  the  northern  Sierras  and  in  associ- 
ation with  his  friend  Baron  von  Richt- 
hofen,  and  in  which  for  many  years 
he  stood  pre-eminent  among  geolo- 
gists of  his  time. 

King's  earliest  scientific  achieve- 
ment on  the  Survey  was  the  discov- 
ery, during  the  study  of  the  gold 
mines  of  the  Mariposa  estate  in  1863, 
of  fossils  in  the  highly  metamor- 
phosed slates  of  the  gold  belt  of  Cali. 
fornia,  a  discovery  that  solved  the 
problem  of  their  age  which  had  long 
puzzled  Western  geologists. 

In  the  autumn  of  1866,  after  his 
return  to  the  east,  he  judged  that 
political  conditions  were  then  most 
favorable  for  the  realization  of  a  plan 
that  had  gradually  been  shaping  itself 
in  his  mind  ever  since  he  first  crossed 
the  continent,  viz.:  that  of  connecting 
264 


Samuel  Franklin  Emmons 

the  geology  of  the  East  with  that 
of  the  West  by  making,  under  Gov- 
ernment auspices,  a  survey  across  the 
whole  Cordilleran  system  at  its  wid- 
est point. 

There  had  been  considerable  appre- 
hension during  the  dark  days  of  the 
Civil  War  lest  California,  physically 
isolated  as  she  was  at  that  time,  should 
separate  from  the  other  States  and  set 
up  an  independent  government.  The 
subsidizing  of  the  transcontinental 
railroads  was  the  first  step  towards 
overcoming  this  isolation  and  bind- 
ing her  more  closely  to  the  East.  In 
King's  judgment  a  second,  hardly  less 
important  one,  would  be  the  develop- 
ment of  the  mineral  resources  of  the 
country  thus  to  be  opened  up  ;  and 
this  could  best  be  accomplished  by 
making  a  thorough  geological  survey 
of  that  region. 

During  the  winter  of  1 866-67,  which 
he  spent  at  Washington,  he  was  so 
265 


Clarence  King — Geologist 

successful  in  impressing  this  view 
upon  Congress,  that  not  only  was 
an  ample  provision  made  for  the 
geological  exploration  planned,  but 
King  himself  was  placed  in  abso- 
lute charge  of  it,  subject  only  to 
the  administrative  control  of  Gen- 
eral A.  A.  Humphreys,  Chief  of  En- 
gineers. 

In  these  days,  when  the  West  is 
covered  by  a  network  of  railways,  it 
is  difficult  to  conceive  the  obstacles 
that  had  to  be  encountered  at  that 
time  in  carrying  out  so  ambitious 
and,  as  some  then  thought,  so  chi- 
merical a  plan  as  that  which  King 
had  conceived.  Of  the  transconti- 
nental roads,  but  a  few  miles  at  either 
end  had  yet  been  constructed.  The 
territories  of  Utah  and  Nevada  were 
represented  on  most  maps  of  the 
day  as  one  broad  desert,  and  it  was 
doubted  whether  sufficient  water  and 
grass  could  be  found  there  to  sup- 
266 


Samuel  Franklin  Emmons 

port  a  camping  party.  Everything 
had  to  be  specially  created  for  the 
purpose,  and,  after  the  party  had 
reached  California  over  the  Panama 
route,  it  took  three  months  to  pre- 
pare the  necessary  camp  outfit  and 
to  carry  them  to  their  field  of  work. 
Even  after  this  work  was  well  under 
way  there  were  times  when  it  seemed 
that  obstacles  ahead  were  almost  too 
great  to  be  overcome,  but  King's 
energy  and  resourcefulness  were 
equal  to  every  emergency,  and  he 
soon  succeeded  in  inspiring  all  the 
members  of  his  party  with  such 
confidence  in  his  leadership  and  in 
imparting  to  them  such  measure  of 
his  own  enthusiasm  that  they  never 
faltered  in  their  devotion  to  the 
work,  even  though  the  three  years 
originally  planned  were  subsequently 
extended,  by  the  unsolicited  action  of 
Congress,  to  seven. 

In  recognition  of  the  legitimacy  of 
267 


Clarence  King — Geologist 

the  public  demand  for  a  direct  appli- 
cation of  the  results  of  government 
geological  work,  King  pushed  first  to 
completion  a  scientific  study  of  the 
ore  deposits  of  the  region  surveyed ; 
more  particularly  of  the  great  Com- 
stock  Lode,  whose  enormous  silver 
product  was  then  disturbing  the 
monetary  system  of  the  country. 
This  work,  written  conjointly  by 
himself  and  James  D.  Hague,  ap- 
peared late  in  1870  under  the  title 
of  Mining  Industry.  It  was  de- 
scribed by  one  of  its  most  capa- 
ble critics  as  "  by  itself  a  scientific 
manual  of  American  precious  metal 
mining  and  metallurgy."  It  is  con- 
sidered classic  among  the  works  in 
its  line  and  has  served  as  a  model  for 
similar  monographs  which  have  since 
been  published  under  Government  au- 
spices and  done  so  much  to  raise  the 
mining  industry  of  America  to  its 
present  high  position. 
268 


Samuel  Franklin  Emmons 

In  1870  he  discovered  on  the  slopes 
of  Mt.  Shasta  the  first  actual  glaciers 
known  to  exist  in  the  United  States ; 
and  in  their  study  made  observations 
that  are  credited  with  first  suggesting 
the  true  origin  of  the  kettle-holes  and 
kames  of  New  England.  His  later 
discovery  in  the  summer  of  1874,  that 
a  line  of  islands  along  the  southern 
coast  of  New  England  formed  a  part  of 
its  terminal  moraine,  had  much  influ- 
ence in  inducing  the  later  systematic 
studies  of  the  continental  glacier. 

The  field-work  of  the  Survey  was 
completed  in  1873,  but  it  was  1877 
before  the  respective  specialists  had 
been  able  to  work  up  the  amount  of 
material  gathered,  for  it  was  one  of 
King's  fundamental  principles  that 
abundant  collections  should  be  made 
in  the  field  to  illustrate  all  the  natural 
phenomena  observed,  and  the  litho- 
logical  collections  alone  numbered 
about  five  thousand  specimens. 
269 


Clarence  King — Geologist 

In  1874,  he  sent  one  member  of  his 
corps  to  Europe  to  study  the  methods 
of  European  geological  surveys  and 
to  obtain  the  best  and  latest  geological 
literature,  with  which  at  that  time 
American  libraries  were  but  scantily 
provided.  He,  also,  instructed  him 
to  confer  with  Prof.  Zirkel,  then  the 
greatest  microscopical  petrographer 
of  the  day,  and  to  induce  him,  if  pos- 
sible, to  visit  America  and  study  in 
the  presence  of  the  collectors  their 
collection  of  rock  specimens,  for  at 
that  time  no  American  geologist  had 
any  practical  knowledge  of  this  new 
branch  of  geology.  From  this  visit 
resulted  Zirkel's  volume  on  micro- 
scopical petrography,  which  marked 
the  opening  of  a  new  era  in  geolog- 
ical study  in  the  United  States. 

King  reserved  for  himself  the  final 
summarizing  of  the  work  of  his  assist- 
ants and  the  drawing  of  general  con- 
clusions and  theoretical  deductions 
270 


Samuel  Franklin  Emmons 

therefrom.  This  he  wrote  in  the 
winter  of  1877-78,  and  published  in 
a  quarto  volume  of  more  than  eight 
hundred  pages  under  the  title  of 
Systematic  Geology,  It  has  been 
characterized  as  the  most  masterly- 
summary  of  a  great  piece  of  geologi- 
cal field-work  that  has  ever  been 
written,  and  is  used  to  this  day  by 
university  professors  of  geology  as  a 
model  for  their  advanced  students. 

King's  crowning  service  to  geo- 
logical science  in  America  followed 
shortly  after  the  completion  of  the 
Fortieth  Parallel  work.  After  two 
of  his  field  seasons  had  demonstrated 
the  practicability  of  geological  map- 
making  in  the  West,  the  Wheeler 
Survey  was  inaugurated  under  the 
Engineer  Department  of  the  Army, 
and  the  already  existing  Hayden 
Survey  later  adopted  his  example  in 
making  topographical  maps  as  a  basis 
for  its  geology,  employing  for  this 
271 


Clarence  King — Geologist 

purpose  the  Fortieth  Parallel  topog- 
raphers after  their  term  of  service  in 
the  latter  Survey  had  expired.  The 
work  of  these  two  organizations  be- 
came so  popular  that  each  desired  to 
cover  the  whole  of  the  unsurveyed 
area  in  the  West,  and  their  rivalry  in 
time  became  so  intense  that  the  influ- 
ence of  either  party  with  Congress 
was  used  to  curtail  the  appropriation 
allotted  to  the  other.  As  a  final  result 
of  this  rivalry  the  time  came  when 
there  was  serious  danger  that  all 
government  aid  for  geological  work 
would  be  cut  off.  It  was  mainly 
through  King's  influence  among  the 
leading  scientific  men  of  the  country 
and  his  tactful  management  of  affairs 
in  Congress  that  this  crisis  was 
averted.  The  question  was  referred 
to  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences, 
and  their  recommendations,  which 
were  on  lines  laid  down  by  him,  were 
finally  adopted  by  Congress,  and  on 
272 


Samuel  Franklin  Emmons 

March  3,  1879,  ^  ^^^  ^^^  passed 
establishing  the  United  States  Ge- 
ological Survey  as  a  bureau  of 
the  Interior  Department.  President 
Hayes,  after  consultation  with  the 
best  scientists  of  the  country,  ap- 
pointed Clarence  ^ing  as  the  first 
director  of  the  new  Bureau.  King 
accepted  the  appointment  with  the 
distinct  understanding  that  he  should 
remain  at  its  head  only  long  enough 
to  appoint  its  staff,  organize  its  work, 
and  guide  its  forces  into  full  activity. 
At  the  close  of  Hayes's  term,  he 
offered  his  resignation,  but  at  the 
President's  request,  he  held  over  until 
after  the  inauguration  of  Garfield. 
The  latter  accepted  it,  on  March  1 2th, 
1 88 1,  in  an  autograph  letter,  express- 
ing in  the  warmest  terms  his  apprecia- 
tion of  the  efficiency  of  King's  service 
and  his  regret  that  he  did  not  find  it 
possible  to  remain  longer  in  charge 

of  the  Geological  Bureau. 
18 

273 


Clarence  King — Geologist 

Brief  as  was  the  duration  of  his  ad- 
ministration, his  influence,  being  ex- 
ercised at  the  critical  period  of  the 
Survey's  existence,  left  a  lasting  im- 
press upon  it.  He  outlined  the  broad, 
general  principles  upon  which  its  work 
should  be  conducted  ;  and  its  subse- 
quent success  has  been  in  a  great 
measure  dependent  upon  the  faithful- 
ness with  which  these  principles  have 
been  followed  by  his  successors. 

Foreseeing  the  important  part  that 
the  development  of  its  mineral  re- 
sources was  destined  to  play  in  the 
future  progress  of  the  country,  he 
judged  that,  while  not  neglecting 
the  more  purely  scientific  side,  its 
work  should  be  primarily  devoted  to 
the  direct  application  of  geological 
results  to  the  development  of  these 
resources.  It  has  been  because  the 
people  at  large  have  realized  its  prac- 
tical success  in  this  line  that  the  Sur- 
vey has  been  more  richly  endowed, 
274 


Samuel  Franklin  Emmons 

and  thus  better  able  to  carry  on  its 
purely  scientific  work,  than  any  or- 
ganization of  its  kind  in  the  world. 

King  set  the  very  highest  standard 
for  its  work,  and  showed  remarkable 
judgment  and  knowledge  of  character 
in  his  selection  of  the  men  who,  in 
their  respective  branches,  were  best 
fitted  to  keep  it  up,  as  nearly  as  pos- 
sible, to  this  standard.  In  his  estab- 
lishment of  a  physical  laboratory  for 
the  determination  of  the  physical  con- 
stants of  rocks,  he  took  a  step  in  the 
direction  of  the  application  of  methods 
of  exact  science  to  geological  problems 
so  far  in  advance  of  the  average  stand- 
ards of  the  day  that  its  importance  was 
not  generally  realized  until  long  after. 

In  all  his  after-life,  he  maintained 
a  lively  interest  in  the  work  of  the 
Survey,  and  kept  closely  in  touch 
with  his  successors  in  ofifice,  who  fre- 
quently consulted  him  on  important 
questions  of  policy. 
275 


Clarence  King — Geologist 

After  his  retirement  from  govern- 
ment service,  he  came  much  less  fre- 
quently into  personal  contact  with 
scientific  men,  for  he  had  little  sym- 
pathy with  that  phase  of  scientific 
activity  which  is  represented  by  acad- 
emies and  societies. 

He  had  been  elected  a  fellow  of 
the  Geological  Society  of  London  in 
1874,  and  of  the  National  Academy 
of  Sciences  in  1876.  He  was,  also, 
a  life  member  of  the  American  Insti- 
tute of  Mining  Engineers,  but  he 
rarely  attended  the  meetings  of  any 
of  these  associations  and  never  con- 
tributed to  their  proceedings.  He 
found  his  recreation  from  business 
occupations  rather  in  social  inter- 
course with  his  many  friends  and 
admirers  in  the  literary  and  artistic 
world,  yet  he  was  not  forgetful  of  his 
chosen  profession,  and  through  all 
the  varied  occupations  of  an  intensely 
busy  life  he  still  continued  his  inves- 
276 


Samuel  Franklin  Emmons 

tigations  Into  the  deeper  problems  of 
geology,  to  carry  on  which  had  been 
one  of  his  motives  for  giving  up  ad- 
ministrative duties  on  the  Geological 
Survey. 

In  his  financial  affairs,  King  had 
difificulties  to  contend  with  that  few 
of  his  friends  realized,  and  which 
would  have  completely  discouraged 
a  man  of  less  sanguine  and  buoyant 
temperament. 

At  two  successive  periods  In  his 
youth,  those  to  whom  he  would  natu- 
rally have  looked  for  financial  support 
were  overwhelmed  by  commercial  dis- 
aster, leaving  him  to  provide  not  only 
for  his  own  wants  but  for  those  of 
other  members  of  his  family.  In  his 
later  life  circumstances  entirely  be- 
yond his  control  more  than  once  baf- 
fled or  annulled  the  efforts  he  was 
making  to  establish  himself  on  such 
a  financial  basis  that  he  would  feel 
justified  In  applying  his  entire  time 
277 


Clarence  King — Geologist 

to  his  chosen  pursuits  in  science  and 
literature.  He  was  consequently 
obliged  to  devote  more  of  his  time 
and  energy  to  the  directly  remunera- 
tive side  of  his  profession  —  that  of 
the  mining  engineer  —  than  he  other- 
wise would  have  done.  This  was  es- 
pecially true  of  his  later  years,  though 
even  in  earlier  life  his  services  had 
been  not  infrequently  sought  in  cases 
of  great  moment. 

He  owed  his  prominent  position  in 
this  profession  not  alone  to  his  ability 
and  experience  as  a  geologist,  which 
exceeded  that  of  most  of  his  fellow- 
workers,  but  to  his  high  standard 
of  personal  integrity  and  the  rapid- 
ity and  acuteness  of  his  judgment. 
These  qualities  were  early  illustrated 
in  an  incident  which  gave  him  per- 
haps greater  prominence  in  the  finan- 
cial world  than  any  other  act  of  his  life 
— his  exposure  of  the  diamond  fraud 
of  1872.  An  apparently  well  authen- 
278 


Samuel  Franklin  Emmons 

ticated  discovery  had  been  made 
of  diamonds  in  sufficient  quantity  to 
affect  the  diamond  markets  of  the 
world.  Although  its  position  was 
kept  carefully  concealed,  through  the 
intimate  knowledge  of  the  country 
possessed  by  his  assistants,  King 
was  enabled  to  determine  that  it 
must  be  located  in  an  area  already 
surveyed  by  them,  and  at  once  fitted 
out  a  party  to  examine  it.  When 
this  examination,  undertaken  prima- 
rily in  the  interest  of  science,  had 
proved  that  the  alleged  discovery  was 
an  elaborate  and  skillfully  planned 
fraud,  it  was  his  prompt  action  and  un- 
shakable integrity  alone  that  averted 
a  financial  disaster  which  threatened 
to  rival  that  of  the  Mississippi  Bubble 
of  Law. 

In   the    many    important    mining 

suits  in  which  he  served  as  scientific 

adviser,    and    which    involved    most 

difficult  and  complicated  problems  of 

279 


Clarence  King — Geologist 

geological  structure,  combined  with 
their  still  more  difficult  interpreta- 
tion under  the  terms  of  the  United 
States  mining  laws,  he  was  generally 
intrusted  with  the  legal  as  well  as  the 
scientific  management  of  the  case.  As 
he  made  it  a  practice  to  never  trust 
the  eye  of  another,  but  to  verify  every 
fact  by  his  own  personal  observation, 
he  obtained  such  a  thorough  know- 
ledge of  his  subject  that  the  most  skill- 
ful lawyers  were  unable  to  shake  his 
testimony  by  their  cross-examination. 
In  his  examination  of  mines,  he  vis- 
ited almost  every  part  of  the  Ameri- 
can continent,  and  thus  acquired  a 
personal  familiarity  with  deep-seated 
phenomena  that  it  seldom  falls  to  the 
lot  of  a  geologist  to  obtain.  Hence 
he  was  exceptionally  well  equipped 
In  this,  as  in  other  respects,  to  carry 
on  the  Investigations  he  had  under- 
taken into  the  problems  of  the  inte- 
rior of  the  earth. 

280 


Samuel  Franklin  Emmons 

In  1890,  Brown  University  con- 
ferred upon  him  the  honorary  degree 
of  LL.  D.  That  he  received  no  pub- 
lic recognition  of  his  later  scientific 
work  may  perhaps  be  ascribed  to 
its  peculiarly  unobtrusive  character 
which  gave  rise  to  the  erroneous  im- 
pression that  he  had  abandoned  sci- 
ence altogether. 

It  is  difficult  to  fairly  judge  King's 
scientific  publications  in  the  light  of 
the  present  day,  for  they  were  writ- 
ten just  before  the  opening  of  an 
era  of  great  change  in  the  methods 
of  geological  investigation,  a  change 
which  has  thus  far  proved  destructive 
rather  than  constructive  in  its  re- 
sults. Many  of  the  fundamental  theo- 
ries of  geology  which  prevailed  at 
that  time  have  been  disproved  or 
abandoned,  while  as  yet  there  is 
no  general  acceptance  of  those  which 
have  been  put  forward  to  replace 
them. 

281 


Clarence  King — Geologist 

In  June,  1877,  he  delivered  the  ad- 
dress at  the  thirty-first  anniversary 
of  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School  on 
*'  Catastrophism  and  the  Evolution 
of  Environment."  It  was  a  protest 
against  the  extreme  uniformitarian- 
ism  of  that  day,  based  largely  on 
the  geological  history  of  the  Cor- 
dilleran  System  as  developed  during 
the  work  of  the  Fortieth  Parallel 
Survey.  This  uniformitarianism  he 
characteristically  described  as  "  the 
harmless  undestructive  rate  (of  geo- 
logical change)  of  to-day,  prolonged 
backward  into  the  deep  past."  He 
contended  that  while  the  old  belief 
in  catastrophic  changes  had  properly 
disappeared,  yet  geological  history, 
as  he  read  it,  showed  that  the  rate  of 
change  had  not  been  so  uniform  as 
was  claimed  by  the  later  school. 
While  a  given  amount  of  energy 
must  evidently  be  expended,  he  rea- 
soned, to  produce  a  given  effect,  yet 
282 


Samuel  Franklin  Emmons 

the  expenditure  of  this  energy  might 
be  extended  over  a  very  long  time,  or 
crowded  into  a  comparatively  short 
one ;  and  his  observations  showed 
him  that  at  certain  periods  in  geo- 
logical history,  the  rate  of  change  was 
accelerated  to  such  a  degree  that  the 
effect  upon  life  produced  was  some- 
what catastrophic  in  its  nature. 

Of  his  great  work  upon  systematic 
geology,  the  larger  part — that  which 
outlines  the  geological  history  of  the 
Cordilleran  System — stands  as  firmly 
to-day  as  it  did  when  written,  as 
a  correct  and  authoritative  exposi- 
tion. In  view  of  the  circumstances 
under  which  the  field-work  was  origi- 
nally done,  its  essential  correctness, 
even  in  matters  of  minor  detail,  is 
considered  surprising  by  those  who 
have  since  had  occasion  to  make  de- 
tailed studies  of  portions  of  the  area 
covered. 

In  the  more  theoretical  sections, 
283 


Clarence  King — Geologist 

while  he  necessarily  did  not  take  into 
account  the  great  number  of  new  facts 
which  have  been  established  by  more 
recent  work,  especially  in  the  domain 
of  microscopic  petrography,  he  showed 
such  grasp  of  his  subjects,  and  such 
originality  and  power  of  thought,  that 
his  views  constituted  not  only  an  im- 
portant advance  over  those  of  the 
day,  but  they  were  suggestive  of  the 
lines  of  investigation  that  have  been 
most  fruitful  in  the  modern  advance 
of  geological  science. 

For  instance,  in  his  discussion  of 
the  reason  for  the  changes  from  acid 
to  basic  eruptives  within  the  indi- 
vidual groups,  which  he  proposed  as 
a  variation  from  the  natural  order  in 
age  of  volcanic  rocks,  as  laid  down 
by  Richthofen,  he  advanced  views 
very  suggestive  of  the  modern  con- 
ception of  differentiation  in  eruptive 
magmas. 

Again,  in  endeavoring  to  account 
284 


Samuel  Franklin  Emmons 

for  the  formation  of  those  types  of 
granite  that  pass  into  gneiss  and  crys- 
talline schists  of  essentially  the  same 
chemical  composition,  but  which  show 
no  evidence  of  having  been  subjected 
to  such  excessive  heat  as  would  pro- 
duce liquefaction,  he  called  in  the 
agency  of  the  immense  pressure  to 
which  such  rocks  would  necessarily 
have  been  subjected.  While  the 
long  years  of  combined  field-work 
and  microscopic  study  of  modern  pe- 
trographers,  made  since  King's  theory 
was  enunciated,  have  proved  that  the 
structure  of  crystalline  schists  is  due 
to  pressure,  they  do  not  go  so  far 
as  he  did  in  assuming  that  the  end 
product  of  such  mechanical  pressure 
might  be  granite. 

Perhaps  his  most  enduring  theo- 
retical discussion  of  that  time  was 
that  on  hypogeal  fusion,  in  which, 
accepting  the  validity  of  the  physical 
arguments  against  the  fluid  interior 
285 


Clarence  King — Geologist 

of  the  earth,  he  discusses  and  rejects 
Hopkins'  theory  of  residual  lakes 
and  Mallet's  conception  of  local  lakes 
produced  by  mechanical  crushing. 
He  then  advances  an  hypothesis  of 
his  own  which  may  be  called  that  of  a 
critical  shell,  or  couche,  between  the 
permanently  solid  interior  and  the 
outer  cfust  of  the  earth,  which  is 
above  the  temperature  of  fusion  but 
restrained  from  fusion  by  pressure. 
In  this,  therefore,  the  opposing  forces 
of  pressure  and  temperature  hold 
themselves  reciprocally  in  equilibrium, 
but  when  this  equilibrium  is  disturbed, 
as  for  instance,  by  a  sudden  change 
of  the  relative  position  of  isobars  and 
isotherms — say  by  local  erosion  and 
rapid  transfer  of  load  within  limited 
areas — local  lakes  of  fusion  would  be 
created.  Iddings,  in  his  Origin  of 
Igneous  Rocks,  says  of  King's  treat- 
ment of  this  subject :  '*  By  the  breadth 
of  his  treatment  and  by  better  and 
286 


Samuel  Franklin  Emmons 

fuller  data  he  advanced  the  problem 
of  the  origin  of  the  various  kinds  of 
volcanic  rocks  far  beyond  the  point 
reached  by  any  of  his  predecessors." 

In  his  chapter  on  Orography,  King 
says,  in  speaking  of  the  causes  of 
crust  motion  :  *'  I  can  plainly  see  that 
were  the  critical  shell  established  its 
reactions  might  thread  the  tangled 
maze  of  phenomena  successfully,  but 
I  prefer  to  build  no  farther  until  the 
underlying  physics  are  worked  out." 
He  was  at  that  time  already  very 
strongly  impressed  with  the  imperfec- 
tion of  the  then  existing  knowledge 
of  terrestrial  thermo-dynamics  and 
the  indispensability  of  more  exact 
data  in  this  branch  of  science  for  a 
rational  discussion  of  the  fundamental 
problems  of  geology. 

This  idea  found  a  practical  out- 
come a  few  years  later  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  physical  laboratory, 
immediately  after  his  assumption  of 
287 


Clarence  King — Geologist 

the  Directorship  of  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey.  His  earnestness 
and  energy  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
instead  of  waiting  for  the  slow  action 
of  Congress,  he  defrayed  the  cost  of 
the  delicate  apparatus  necessary  for 
this  work  out  of  his  own  pocket.  The 
credit  of  the  brilliant  physical  in- 
vestigations carried  on  in  that  labora- 
tory is  naturally  due  to  Professors 
Barus  and  Hallock,  who  conducted 
them,  but  it  was  King's  acumen  and 
good  judgment  that  was  responsible 
for  their  selection,  and  his  action 
that  made  it  possible  for  them  to 
carry  on  their  work.  To  himself,  as 
he  says  ten  years  later  in  his  paper 
on  ''The  Age  of  the  Earth,"  *  he  re- 
served the  privilege  of  "making  geo- 
logical applications  of  the  laboratory 
results."  The  experirnents  on  the 
physical  constants  of  rocks  contem- 

*  The  American  Journal  of  Science^    vol. 
xlv.,  Jan.,  1893. 

288 


Samuel  Franklin  Emmons 

plated  were  to  be  directed  to  the 
determination  (a)  of  the  phenomena 
of  fusion,  (If)  of  those  of  elasticity 
and  viscosity,  and  (c)  of  those  of 
heat  conductivity,  each  considered 
with  special  reference  to  their  depend- 
ence on  temperature  and  pressure. 

The  paper  on  **  The  Age  of  the 
Earth,"  mentioned  above,  is  his  only 
published  result,  and  was  but  an  ear- 
nest of  what  he  had  planned  to  do. 
This  was  an  attempt  to  advance  to 
new  precision  Kelvin's  estimate  of 
the  Earth's  age  deduced  from  terres- 
trial refrigeration.  It  consists  mainly 
of  a  mathematical  discussion  of  the 
Earth's  thermal  age  as  determined 
from  various  postulates  presented  by 
Laplace,  Geo.  H.  Darwin  and  Lord 
Kelvin,  and  based  on  Barus'  deter- 
minations of  the  latent  heat  of  fusion, 
specific  heat,  melted  and  solid,  and 
volume  of  expansion  between  the 
solid  and  melted  state,  of  the  rock 
^^  289 


Clarence  King — Geologist 

diabase.  This  is  followed  by  a  criti- 
cal examination  of  other  methods  of 
determining  the  Earth's  age — by  tidal 
retardation,  by  sun-age  and  by  varia- 
tions of  eccentricity.  After  a  careful 
scrutiny  of  all  the  data  on  the  effect 
of  pressure  on  the  temperature  of 
consoHdation,  King  concluded  that, 
without  further  experimental  data, 
'*we  have  no  warrant  for  extending 
the  Earth's  age  beyond  24  millions  of 
years,"  an  estimate  which,  as  the  re- 
sult of  a  somewhat  more  extended 
discussion,  was  afterwards  confirmed 
by  Lord  Kelvin  himself.  {Smith- 
soman  Report,  1897,  p.  345.) 

His  further  investigations  along 
the  same  general  lines  on  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  upheaval  and 
subsidence  were  in  an  advanced  stage 
of  completion  when  they  were  cut  off 
by  his  untimely  death. 

It  is  practically  impossible  to  ade- 
quately characterize  King's  literary 
290 


Samuel  Franklin  Emmons 

work,  for  the  greater  part  of  what 
he  did  was  never  published,  and 
very  likely  never  even  written.  It 
was  his  habit  to  work  out  in  his 
head  any  subject  which  interested 
him,  even  down  to  its  minutest  de- 
tails, before  putting  a  pen  to  paper ; 
once  this  was  accomplished  to  his 
satisfaction,  he  wrote  with  such  ease 
and  rapidity  that  the  words  actually 
flowed  from  his  pen.  Probably  one 
reason  that  he  did  not  write  more 
was  that  his  own  literary  taste  was 
so  refined  and  exacting  that  he  was 
never  thoroughly  satisfied  with  his 
own  conceptions.  In  his  scientific 
writing,  there  was  generally  some 
imperious  necessity  that  made  it 
urgent  upon  him  to  give  his  results 
to  the  public  in  spite  of  the  imper- 
fections he  might  still  see  in  them, 
but  in  literature  such  necessity  rarely 
appeared.  What  he  did  publish  he 
himself  held  in  comparatively  light 
291 


Clarence  King — Geologist 

esteem,  but  in  the  opinion  of  the 
best  literary  writers  of  the  day,  with 
most  of  whom  he  was  on  terms  of 
friendly  and  intimate  intercourse,  his 
writings,  and  even  more  his  affluent 
and  delightful  talks,  disclosed  a  liter- 
ary quality  that  might  have  given 
him  a  foremost  place  among  Ameri- 
can men  of  letters. 

He  was  a  man  of  remarkable  in- 
tellectual versatility,  and  has  been 
probably  as  widely  known  and  ap- 
preciated for  his  literary  as  for  his 
scientific  ability,  though  his  published 
literary  writings  have  been  singularly 
few  in  number.  The  recollection  of 
his  consummate  art  as  a  conversation- 
alist and  raconteur,  of  the  delicate 
wit  and  irrepressible  humor  that 
showed  itself  at  times  even  in  his 
scientific  writings,  of  the  kindly  spirit 
and  refined  courtesy  that  character- 
ized his  every  action,  and  of  his 
irresistibly  attractive  smile,  has  left 
292 


Samuel  Franklin  Emmons 

behind  a  mingled  feeling  of  pleasure 
and  regret  among  all  who  had  the 
privilege  of  knowing  him. 

King  was  a  man  of  remarkably  ro- 
bust physique,  and  showed  through- 
out his  physically  arduous  life  powers 
of  endurance  that  are  rarely  equaled; 
yet  it  was  one  of  the  penalties  of 
the  highly  sensitive  and  nervous 
organization,  which  rendered  possi- 
ble his  marvelously  acute  and  delicate 
perception,  that  he  was  subject  to 
sudden  and  almost  unaccountable 
break-downs  in  which  he  suffered 
intensely.  His  last  severe  illness 
was  an  attack  of  pneumonia  in  the 
early  part  of  1 901,  which  followed 
an  examination  of  a  mining  property 
during  very  inclement  weather. 
From  this  he  recovered,  but  tuber- 
culosis, the  seeds  of  which  were 
supposed  to  have  been  sown  during 
a  trip  to  the  Klondike  during  the 
previous  summer,  made  such  rapid 
293 


Clarence  King — Geologist 

progress  during  the  following  months 
that,  after  several  changes  of  climate 
in  the  vain  hope  of  ameliorating  his 
condition,  he  finally  passed  away, 
quietly  and  without  suffering,  on  the 
24th  day  of  December  in  the  year 
1 901. 

It  was  part  of  his  characteristic 
unselfishness  that  he  effectually  dis- 
couraged all  offers  on  the  part  of 
friends  and  relations  to  visit  him  — 
visits  which  might  have  cheered  his 
last  lonely  days  in  that  far  distant 
region. 


294 


Clarence  King's  School-days 
Daniel  C.  Gilman 


295 


Clarence  King's  School-days 

CLARENCE  KING  was  brought 
to  New  Haven  by  his  widowed 
mother  some  years  before  he  entered 
college,  and  they  dwelt  on  Church 
Street  opposite  the  house  of  President 
Woolsey  and  close  by  the  house  of 
Dr.  Bacon.  His  appearance  at  that 
time  I  recall  distinctly.  He  had  the 
same  bright  face,  winning  smile,  agile 
movement,  that  we  knew  in  later  life. 
Soon  the  two,  then  and  always  a  de- 
voted  pair,  went  to  Hartford,  where, 
if  I  am  not  mistaken,  Clarence  was  a 
pupil  in  the  historic  grammar  school 
founded  by  Edward  Hopkins.  Al- 
though his  aptitude  for  letters  was 
inborn  and  inbred,  he  chose  the 
scientific  courses  at  Yale,  in  place  of 
the  academic,  and  he  entered  the 
Sheffield  Scientific  School  in  1859. 
297 


Clarence  King's  School-days 

That  department  of  the  college  was 
just  emerging  from  its  cradle  and 
beginning  the  remarkable  progress 
for  which  it  has  been  in  later  years 
so  highly  distinguished.  The  number 
of  students  was  not  large  and  they 
had  easy  and  familiar  access  to  the 
professors.  The  name  of  James  D. 
Dana  gave  prestige  to  the  faculty, 
and  he  exerted  a  powerful  influence, 
though  not  by  the  process  of  method- 
ical instruction.  William  D.  Whitney, 
the  eminent  philologist  (with  whose 
brother,  Josiah  D.  Whitney,  the  dis- 
tinguished geologist.  King  was  after- 
wards associated  on  the  Pacific 
Coast),  was  then  teaching  French 
and  German  at  the  Sheffield.  George 
J.  Brush,  already  distinguished  as  a 
mineralogist,  was  the  life  of  the 
school,  and  his  superb  collection  of 
minerals  was  freely  opened  to  all 
qualified  inquirers.  The  chemist  was 
Samuel    W.    Johnson.     Chester    S. 

2g8 


Daniel  C.  Gilman 

Lyman  taught  practical  astronomy, 
and  introduced  his  students  to  the 
art  of  making  observations  in  the 
field.  William  A.  Norton  taught  sur- 
veying. William  H.  Brewer,  who 
had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  King  at 
a  later  period,  did  not  join  the  faculty 
until  two  years  after  King  had  re- 
ceived (in  1862)  the  diploma  of  a 
Bachelor  of  Arts.  These  names  are 
thus  recalled  in  order  that  some  of 
the  influences  may  be  remembered 
under  which  this  promising  scholar 
was  trained.  He  did  well  in  his 
studies,  but,  after  all,  King  would  have 
risen  to  distinction  without  the  aid  of 
pedagogics.  He  was  alert,  indepen- 
dent, quick  to  receive  impressions, 
ready  to  act  on  his  own  impulses,  fond 
of  literature  and  of  science,  with  that 
token  of  genius  which  is  said  to  be 
**  the  art  of  lighting  one's  own  fires." 
In  short,  he  graduated  one  of  the 
most  promising,  as  he  became  one  of 
299 


Clarence  King's  School-days 

the  most  brilliant,  of  the  Sheffield 
graduates. 

Not  long  after  his  courses  were 
finished  he  set  out  for  California  by 
the  overland  journey,  before  the  rail- 
road was  built,  expecting  there  to  be- 
come acquainted  with  J.  D.  Whitney, 
to  whom  he  carried  an  introduction. 
James  T.  Gardiner,  his  life-long 
friend,  went  with  him.  I  well  re- 
member the  letters  that  came  from 
the  young  geologist  describing  the 
incidents  of  his  long  journey,  and  I 
hope  that  their  fresh  and  characteris- 
tic sketches  are  not  lost  beyond  re- 
covery. 

This  record  of  his  boyish  days  may 
end  here.  Others  will  tell  the  story 
of  his  active  career,  which  included  a 
survey  (with  Gardiner)  of  the  Yo- 
semite  Valley;  mountaineering  in  the 
Sierras  and  the  ascent  of  Mount 
Whitney ;  the  organization  and  direc- 
tion of  the  Fortieth  Parallel  Survey, 
300 


Daniel  C  Gilman 

and  his  contributions  to  its  publica- 
tions ;  the  remarkable  detection  of 
the  diamond  fraud ;  and  finally  his 
appointment  as  the  first  Director  of 
the  United  States  Geological  Survey, 
—  a  remarkable  record  achieved  by 
one  whose  boyhood  was  full  of  prom- 
ise, whose  education  was  as  good  as 
the  country  could  afford,  and  whose 
manly  energy,  enthusiasm,  and  good 
sense  enabled  him  to  overcome  great 
difficulties,  win  encouragement  and 
support,  and  hold  a  station  of  respon- 
sibility and  influence  with  credit  and 
renown. 


301 


Biographical  Notice 

Rossiter  W.  Raymond 


303 


Biographical  Notice* 

CLARENCE  KING  was  born 
January  6,  1842,  at  Newport, 
R.  I.  His  ancestors  on  both  sides 
were  New  Englanders,  of  English 
blood,  and  among  them  not  a  few  dis- 
tinguished themselves  in  art,  science, 
politics  or  commerce.     .     .     . 

His  father  died  in  1848.  The 
young  mother,  widowed  in  her  twen- 
ty-third year,  devoted  herself  to  the 
education  of  her  only  son,  pursuing 
for  herself  many  studies,  that  she 
might  teach  him  ;  and  becorning  at 
the  outset,  as  she  remained  always, 

*A  partial  reprint  from  the  Transactions 
of  the  American  Institute  of  Mining  En- 
gineers. Certain  portions  of  Dr.  Raymond's 
original  paper  have  been  omitted  because 
dealing  with  matters  already  covered  by  other 

contributors  to  this  volume. 
20 

305 


Biographical  Notice 

his  sympathetic  and  competent  in- 
tellectual companion.  On  his  part, 
he  began  as  a  '*  mother  s  boy  " — best 
of  all  beginnings  ! — and  as  a  mother's 
boy,  maintaining  still  in  undiminished 
fervor  and  unstained  purity  the  filial 
reverence  and  affection  of  childhood, 
he  ended — best  of  all  endings  ! 

His  early  years  were  spent  at  New- 
port. At  about  thirteen  he  entered 
the  High  School  at  Hartford,  Conn. 
He  had  already  shown  the  character- 
istic qualities  of  physical  strength  and 
activity  ;  love  of  nature  and  the  nat- 
ural sciences  (exercised  in  hunting, 
fishing  and  botanizing  during  summer 
vacations  in  the  Green  Mountains)  ; 
an  almost  equal  passion  and  appre- 
ciation for  literature  and  art ;  great 
powers  of  entertaining  conversation  ; 
singularly  quick  observation  and  won- 
derful memory,  and  (as  the  poet  Sted- 
man  lately  said  of  him)  "  the  gift  of 
friendship" — a  gift  which  Mr.  Gard- 
306 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

iner,  his  schoolmate  at  Hartford,  de- 
clares to  have  been  as  marked  in  him 
at  fifteen  as  at  fifty.  I  cannot  do 
better  in  this  connection  than  quote 
his  friend's  summary  description  of 
King  at  that  period  : 

**  On  Saturday,  we  usually  spent 
the  whole  day  walking  in  the  country. 
If  any  question  arose  as  to  any  object 
seen  during  the  day,  whether  we  had 
particularly  noticed  it  or  not,  King 
could  always  describe  it  from  memory 
with  great  minuteness.  He  seemed 
to  photograph  unconsciously  every- 
thing that  passed  before  his  eyes,  and 
to  be  able  to  recall  the  picture  at  will. 
He  studied  enthusiastically  the  bot- 
any, the  bird  and  animal  life,  and  the 
rocks,  of  the  regions  over  which  we 
rambled. 

'*  Already  at  fifteen,  he  wrote  beau- 
tifully, having  been  trained  in  literary 
judgment  and  skill  by  his  mother, 
who  possessed  in  high  degree  both 
307 


Biographical  Notice 

the  faculty  of  expression  and  power 
to  inspire  enthusiasm.  From  her  he 
received  also,  besides  his  literary  and 
artistic  tastes  and  critical  perceptions, 
an  ardent  hatred  of  slavery,  and  a 
clear  foresight  of  the  impending  '  ir- 
repressible conflict '  of  the  Civil  War." 

In  May,  1863,  together  with  his 
friend  Gardiner,  whose  health  had 
been  somewhat  impaired  by  over- 
study,  he  started  for  California,  in- 
tending to  make  the  journey  on 
horseback  from  St.  Joseph,  Mo.,  then 
the  most  western  railway-terminus. 

This  adventurous  journey,  taken  in 
connection  with  King's  subsequent 
career,  reminds  me  irresistibly  of  a 
feature  in  the  life  of  General  William 
T.  Sherman  —  a  man  possessed  of 
the  same  tireless  activity,  hunger 
for  new  knowledge  and  faculty  of 
perceiving,  comprehending,  retaining 
308 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

and,  at  need,  effectively  utilizing,  any 
facts  he  had  encountered,  however 
casually.  When  asked,  in  his  old  age, 
how  he  had  dared  to  cut  loose  from 
his  base  of  supplies  and  risk  his  whole 
army  in  the  bold  march  from  Atlanta 
to  the  sea,  Sherman  replied  that  he 
would  not  have  dared  it,  in  the  ab- 
sence of  detailed  maps  and  other  in- 
formation, but  for  the  circumstance 
that  many  years  before,  as  a  young 
Lieutenant  of  the  Engineer  Corps, 
serving  in  the  South,  he  had  studied 
every  stream,  hill  and  road  in  that 
region,  and  learned,  never  to  forget, 
the  difficulties  and  resources  of  the 
country  ;  so  that  in  undertaking  what 
seemed  to  others  a  blind  and  hazard- 
ous venture,  he  "  knew  what  he  was 
about."  We  shall  see  that  King's 
great  scientific  exploration  from  the 
Missouri  to  the  Sierra  was  rendered 
practicable,  at  the  particular  period 
of  its  execution,  by  reason  of  the 
309 


Biographical  Notice 

early  reconnaissance  which  he  had 
made  in  person. 

On  their  way  to  the  Golden  Gate, 
the  two  friends  accidentally  made 
the  acquaintance  of  Prof.  William  H. 
Brewer  (an  assistant  in  the  Geological 
Survey  of  California);  and  both  were 
drawn  into  the  service  of  that  survey, 
then  recently  organized  under  Prof. 
J.  D.  Whitney. 

From  a  private  letter  of  Prof.  Brew- 
er's, I  make  the  following  interesting 
quotation : 

**  I  first  met  Clarence  King  and  his 
intimate  friend,  James  T.  Gardiner, 
on  Aug.  30,  1863.  I  had  been  mak- 
ing, that  summer,  a  reconnaissance  in 
the  Sierra  Nevada,  beginning  in  the 
extreme  southern  part,  at  Tejon,  and 
zigzagging  six  or  eight  times  across 
the  divide,  my  last  crossing  having 
been  from  the  northern  end  of  Lake 
Tahoe  to  Forest  Hill.  My  party  had 
310 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

been  reduced  by  sickness  and  other 
causes  until,  during  the  last  four 
crossings,  I  had  with  me  my  packer 
only.  It  was  my  desire  to  continue 
the  reconnaissance  northward  as  far 
as  Lassen  peak  ;  but  another  man,  at 
least,  was  needed — especially  as  the 
Indians  were  reported  to  have  broken 
out  from  Lassen  peak  to  the  Shasta 
valley.  So  I  had  left  my  animals 
with  my  packer  at  Forest  Hill  and 
started  for  San  Francisco  to  see  my 
chief,  Prof.  J.  D.  Whitney,  with  re- 
gard to  the  necessary  assistance,  and 
to  interview  the  Indian  agent  and 
the  military  authorities  concerning 
the  reported  Indian  war. 

"On  the  Sacramento  river  steamer 
I  noticed  two  young  men  conversing 
together  in  low  tones,  and  curiously 
glancing  from  time  to  time  at  me, 
attracted,  no  doubt,  by  my  costume 
and  appearance,  which  indicated  that 
I  was  engaged  in  rough  mountain-  or 

3" 


Biographical  Notice 

forest-work  of  some  kind,  yet  not 
that  of  the  hunter  or  the  miner.  Pres- 
ently they  drew  near,  and  the  younger 
one  (King)  asked,  '  Is  your  name 
Brewer  ?  '  '  Yes,'  I  replied.  '  Be- 
long to  the  California  Geological  Sur- 
vey ? '  '  Yes.'  '  Well ;  I  had  a  letter 
of  introduction  to  you  from  Prof. 
Brush ;  but  it  was  burned  up  the 
other  day ! '  He  went  on  to  say  that 
he  had  been  for  three  years  at  the 
Yale  Scientific  School  (as  it  was 
called  when  he  entered  it);  and  that 
he  and  his  friend  had  crossed  the 
plains,  the  interior  basin  and  the 
Sierra,  since  leaving  New  Haven. 
Of  course  we  began  at  once  an  ac- 
quaintance which  soon  became,  and 
always  remained,  a  cordial  friendship. 
Many  years  after,  he  wrote  on  the 
fly-leaf  of  the  second  edition  of  his 
Mountaineering  in  the  Sierra  Nevada 
(the  most  brilliant  and  fascinating  of 
books  on  mountain-climbing),  these 
312 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

words,  which  I  treasure  with  affec- 
tionate pride  :  '  To  Professor  W.  H. 
Brewer,  my  earliest  and  kindest  Sierra 
friend,  to  whose  friendly  guidance  I 
owe  my  first  and  my  most  charming 
mountaineering,  with  the  unchanging 
regard  of  the  Author.' 

"  I  may  be  permitted  to  introduce 
here  a  reminiscence  which  is  likewise 
most  gratifying  to  me,  as  showing 
the  part  which  I  unconsciously  took 
in  bringing  Clarence  King  to  Cali- 
fornia, and  thus  initiating  the  career 
which  was  to  make  him  illustrious. 

*'  Both  during  our  earliest  confer- 
ences and  on  several  later  occasions, 
King  told  me  that  Mount  Shasta 
was  the  magnet  that  had  drawn 
him  irresistibly  to  the  Pacific  coast. 
This  magnificent  mountain  then  pos- 
sessed a  pre-eminence  in  popular 
estimation  which  it  no  longer  pos- 
sesses. It  was  believed  to  be  the 
highest  peak  in  North  America.  Its 
313 


Biographical  Notice 

altitude  had  been  variously  reported 
at  from  14,000  to  18,000  feet.  From 
the  first,  the  members  of  the  Cali- 
fornia Survey  looked  forward  with 
eager  anticipation  to  a  thorough 
examination  of  it.  We  had  two 
barometers  made  with  scales  which 
would  show  an  altitude  of  18,000  feet, 
and  after  collecting  all  available  in- 
formation, I  was  expecting  to  ascend 
Shasta  in  September,  1862.  It  was 
a  very  malarial  year,  and  nearly  all 
my  party  came  down  with  fever.  Of 
those  who  were  able  to  work,  some 
had  to  be  distributed  to  observe  sta- 
tion-barometers, for  the  subsequent 
comparison  with  the  summit-readings. 
The  rest,  accompanied  by  Prof.  Whit- 
ney, who  came  from  San  Francisco 
for  the  same  purpose,  proceeded  to 
the  western  base  of  Shasta,  and  made 
the  ascent  to  the  summit  Sept.  2,  1862. 
It  was  the  first  time  that  the  altitude 
of  a  mountain  in  the  United  States, 
314 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

more  than  14,000  feet  high,  had  been 
accurately  measured  ;  and  we  were 
naturally  proud  of  the  achievement. 
A  few  days  later  I  wrote  to  a  very 
old  friend  and  classmate.  Professor 
George  J.  Brush,  an  enthusiastic  ac- 
count of  our  adventure,  emphasizing 
not  only  the  scientific  interest,  but 
also  the  sublime  and  majestic  scenery 
connected  with  it.  To  Clarence  King, 
who  happened  to  call  upon  him  soon 
after  the  receipt,  Prof.  Brush  read  this 
letter ;  and,  as  King  told  me  many 
times,  'that  settled  it'  He  resolved 
to  see  California,  and,  in  particular, 
Mount  Shasta. 

**  To  return  to  my  narrative  :  I  liked 
King  from  the  first ;  he  gave  me 
much  comparatively  recent  informa- 
tion concerning  my  old  friends  at 
Yale ;  I  told  him  my  plans ;  and  we 
arranged  to  meet  in  San  Francisco. 
And,  at  my  invitation,  he  called  sev- 
eral times  at  the  ofifice  of  the  Survey 
315 


Biographical  Notice 

in  that  city,  deepening  on  each  occa- 
sion my  growing  affection  and  esteem 
for  him.  I  was  intensely  anxious  to 
get  into  the  Lassen  peak  region. 
The  year  before,  I  had  passed  it,  go- 
ing up  and  down  the  great  valley 
west  of  it,  and  had  traced  the  Cre- 
taceous formation,  finding  it,  at  one 
point,  overlain  with  lava.  I  now 
wished  to  get  into  some  of  the  canons 
which  cut  through  both  the  lava  and 
auriferous  series.  All  this  could  be 
done  with  safety ;  but  the  Indian 
agent  said  it  would  be  madness  to 
try  to  go  through,  north  of  Lassen 
peak,  to  Shasta  Valley.  I  decided  to 
start  anyhow,  and  go  as  far  as  I 
could.  King  wanted  to  go  with  me, 
as  a  '  volunteer  without  pay.  The 
possible  danger  of  the  trip  was  an 
additional  temptation  to  him.  And 
Prof.  Whitney  (who  was  likewise 
captivated  by  his  light  and  ardent 
nature)  authorized  me  to  engage  him. 
316 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

''Clarence  King  was  then  in  his 
2 2d  year,  but  looked  much  younger. 
Of  course,  he  was  not  so  thoroughly 
informed  or  so  deeply  interested  in 
geological  problems  as  he  afterwards 
became.  In  fact,  he  stood  on  the 
threshold  of  that  fascinating  study, 
saturated  chiefly  with  Ruskin  and 
Tyndall.  The  remarks  of  the  latter 
on  the  glaciers  of  the  Alps  were  con- 
stantly upon  his  lips.  * 

*'The  trip  was  notable  in  many 
respects,  and  suggested  many  topics 
of  inquiry  which  afterwards  bore  fruit 
in  King's  receptive,  retentive  and  in- 
tensely active  mind.  Lassen  peak 
was  reported  to  have  been,  only  a 

*  Editorial  Note. — A  recent  correspon- 
dent writes  to  say,  on  the  authority  of  Pro- 
fessor Brewer,  that  King,  when  he  joined  in 
the  field-work  of  the  Geological  Survey  of 
California,  had  with  him,  as  part  of  his 
camp  outfit,  "a  Bible,  a  Table  of  Loga- 
rithms, and  a  volume  of  Robertson's  ser- 
mons."— J.  D.  H. 

317 


Biographical  Notice 

few  years  before,  an  active  volcano, 
and  offered  an  opportunity  for  the 
study  of  recent  eruptive  rocks.  The 
possible  glaciers  upon  Shasta  were 
discussed,  as  was  also  the  age  of  the 
gold-bearing  rock-zone  of  the  Sierra, 
and  the  desirability  of  a  geological 
section  across  the  range.  Incident- 
ally, the  larger  scheme  of  a  transcon- 
tinental section  was  mentioned.  This 
had  been  the  dream  of  Whitney  in 

1862,  when  the  construction  of  the 
Pacific  railways  was  actively  begun. 
He  thought  that  when  once  a  section 
across  California  had  been  completed 
the  railroad  companies  might  be  in- 
clined to  pay  for  making  one  along 
their  lines,  across  the  interior  basin 
and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  to  the 
great  plains. 

'*  We  ascended  Lassen  peak  twice, 
on  the  26th  and  29th  of  September, 

1 863.  The  first  time  the  day  was  un- 
propitious  for  good  barometric  work. 

318 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

There  was  a  fierce  wind  on  the  sum- 
mit ;  a  storm  was  approaching,  and 
the  barometer  was  falling  rapidly ; 
and  the  whole  Pitt  river  valley  was 
filled  with  clouds,  hiding  everything 
below  the  altitude  of  8000  or  9000  feet. 
But  all  was  clear  above,  and  Shasta, 
eighty  miles  away,  with  the  tops  of  the 
adjacent  mountains  only,  rose  from 
the  white  mountain  of  cloud,  projected 
against  an  intensely  blue  sky.  King's 
exclamation  was,  *  What  would  Rus- 
kin  have  said,  if  he  had  seen  this  ! ' 

**  On  the  way  back  he  wanted  to 
try  2.  glissade  down  one  of  the  snow- 
slopes.  I  objected  strongly,  being 
uncertain  whether  it  would  be  prac- 
ticable for  him  to  stop  before  reach- 
ing the  rocks  at  the  bottom.  But  he 
had  read  Tyndall ;  and  what  was  a 
mountain  climb  without  a  glissade  f 
So  he  had  his  way,  and  came  out  of 
the  adventure  with  only  a  few  unim- 
portant bruises. 

319 


Biographical  Notice 

"Three  days  later,  after  the  end 
of  an  uncomfortable  storm  of  rain, 
snow  and  sleet,  we  made  a  second 
ascent  of  the  peak,  going  up  in  the 
night,  by  bright  moonlight,  and  ar- 
riving before  sunrise  at  the  summit, 
where  we  spent  ten  hours.  The  sky 
was  cloudless,  and  the  atmosphere 
transparent  in  the  highest  degree. 
For  a  short  time  after  sunrise  we  could 
see  Mount  Hamilton  in  the  south 
—  normally  below  the  horizon,  but 
*  looming  up '  long  enough  and  plainly 
enough  for  satisfactory  identification. 
This  is  the  longest  distance  at  which, 
so  far  as  I  know,  I  have  ever  seen  a 
terrestrial  object.  Another  spectacle 
of  unique  perfection  and  grandeur 
observed  on  that  occasion  was  the 
shadow  of  the  peak  projected  on  the 
western  sky.  Although  I  have  often 
reached  greater  altitudes,  that  day 
stands  out  in  my  memory  as  one  of 
the  most  impressive  of  my  life. 
320 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

"  It  will  easily  be  imagined  with 
what  satisfaction  and  delight  these 
experiences  were  shared  with  such 
a  companion  as  Clarence  King,  to 
whose  glowing  enthusiasm  they  were 
new  as  well  as  grand.  Again,  he 
was  fascinated  by  Shasta.  Three 
days  before,  the  snow  upon  it  had 
been  in  patches  and  streaks ;  now 
the  snow  had  covered  with  un- 
broken white  —  save  here  and  there 
a  protruding  rock — the  upper  4000 
or  5000  feet  of  the  mountain.  The 
lower  limit  of  this  cap  was  a 
sharply -defined  'snow -line.'  The 
great  white  cone  standing  upon  the 
dark  base,  against  a  background  of 
intense  blue,  was  a  memorable  pic- 
ture, and  deserved  King's  rhapsodies 
of  admiration. 

"  It  was  in  the  earlier  part  of  this 
expedition  that  the  first  discovery 
of  the  Jurassic  and  Triassic  fossils 
in  place   in   the  auriferous   zone  of 

21 


Biographical  Notice 

California  was  made  in  the  Genesee 
Valley,  Plumas  County.  * 

**  The  next  year,  King  and  I  passed 
around  the  eastern  base  of  Shasta. 
The  reconnaissance  of  this  mountain 
had  been  made  by  the  California 
Survey  in  1862,  after  a  winter  noted 
for  the  heaviest  rains  and  snows  since 
the  acquisition  of  California.  And 
we  had  then  announced  that,  while 
there  was  much  snow  on  the  moun- 
tain, there  were  no  glaciers.  King 
had  never  seen  glaciers ;  I  had  seen 
them  only  in  Switzerland. 

"  We  forded  one  day  at  the  base 
of  Shasta  a  small  stream,  turbid  with 
ash-colored  mud,  which  came  from  a 
snow-field  far  above.  I  said  that,  if 
we  were  in  Switzerland,  I  should  con- 
sider it  a  typical,  glacier-fed  stream. 

*  See  American  yournal  of  Science^  2d 
series,  vol.  xli.,  p.  353  ;  also  Geological  Sur- 
vey of  California,  "  Geology,"  vol.  i.,  pp.  308, 
462. 

322 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

*  Why  is  it  not  ? '  insisted  King.  I  told 
him  I  had  been,  only  a  year  before, 
on  the  upper  part  of  that  very  snow- 
field,  and  that  it  showed  neither  ice  nor 
crevasses.  I  thought  the  turbidity  of 
the  water  was  due  to  volcanic  dust. 

**  Six  years  later,  in  1870,  King 
discovered  actual  glaciers  on  Shasta, 
and  in  1871  described  them  in  the 
Atlantic  Monthly  and  in  the  Ameri- 
can Journal  of  Science,  Two  years 
later,  or  ten  years  after  our  fording 
the   turbid   stream,   he  said   to    me, 

*  That  stream  haunted  me  for  years, 
until  I  got  on  Mount  Shasta  and 
found  the  glaciers  ! ' 

'*  That  was  an  illustration  of  the 
way  in  which  his  retentive  as  well  as 
perceptive  mind  stored  up,  and  ulti- 
mately used,  the  facts  and  suggestions 
it  had  once  received.  Another  occurs 
to  me.  On  our  trip,  in  1863,  I  talked 
much  about  the  value  of  large  photo- 
graphs in  geological  surveys.  I  had 
323 


Biographical  Notice 

taken  a  fancy  to  stereoptical  views 
especially ;  and  I  thought  the  broken 
country  about  Lassen  peak  should 
be  photographed,  and  could  not  be 
shown  satisfactorily  by  drawings.  In 
later  years  King  was  the  first  to  carry 
out  these  ideas  on  a  grand  scale ;  and 
now  the  camera  is  an  indispensable 
part  of  the  apparatus  of  field-work  in 
such  surveys.  Many  similar  instances 
might  be  given  in  which  King  did  the 
things  of  which  others  had  dreamed." 

The  foregoing  reminiscences  of 
his  friend  and,  at  that  time,  his  im- 
mediate chief,  abundantly  indicate 
the  qualities  of  ambition,  energy 
and  endurance  which  soon  won  for 
the  young  athlete  of  Yale  recog- 
nized leadership  in  the  field.  The 
story  of  his  ascent  of  Mount  Whit- 
ney (14,898  feet  above  tide),  the 
highest  peak  in  the  United  States, 
outside  of  Alaska,  affords  an  inter- 
324 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

esting  and,  in  some  respects,  amusing 
illustration. 

The  whole  somewhat  complicated 
story  is  told  in  an  article  by  Mr. 
Hague  in  the  Overland  Monthly  for 
Nov.,  1873,  from  which  it  appears  : 

That  the  name  of  Mount  Whitney 
was  given  in  1864  to  the  highest  of  a 
noble  cluster  of  peaks  at  the  head- 
waters of  the  Kern  and  King  rivers 
by  a  party  of  the  California  Geologi- 
cal Survey,  under  the  direction  of 
Prof.  Brewer,  and  including  Clar- 
ence King,  which  was  at  work  in 
that  region  during  the  summer  of 
that  year,  and  some  of  whom  (in- 
cluding King,  of  course — when  was 
he  ever  left  out,  if  an  adventure  was 
on  the  programme  ?)  ascended  a  peak 
which  they  called  Mount  Tyndall, 
from  which  they  saw  two  others, 
still  higher,  to  the  loftier  of  which 
they  gave  the  name  of  Whitney, 
their  distinguished  chief ;  that  later 
325 


Biographical  Notice 

in  the  same  year,  after  the  party  had 
been  withdrawn,  King  made  an  un- 
successful attempt  to  reach  this  top- 
most summit;  that  in  1871  (when  no 
longer  connected  with  the  California 
Survey)  he  returned,  with  character- 
istic pertinacity,  to  this  endeavor,  and 
climbed  to  what  he  supposed  to  be  the 
top  of  Mount  Whitney,  but  was  pre- 
vented from  identifying  his  position 
by  **  dense,  impenetrable  clouds  "  *  ; 
that  in  July,  1873,  Mr.  W.  A.  Good- 
year, formerly  of  the  California  Sur- 
vey, with  a  companion,  ascended  the 
summit  last  named,  and  clearly  saw 
another  and  higher  one,  which  was  the 
true  Mount  Whitney,  already  located 
by  observations  from  other  mountain 
stations,  and  located  upon  official 
maps.  This  truly  highest  summit 
has  since  been  reached  by  many 
parties. 

*  This  ascent  is  described  in  King's  book, 
Mountaineering  in  the  Sierra  Nevada. 
326 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

Whoever  cares  to  unravel  the  in- 
tricacies of  this  narrative  will  find  in 
Mr.  Hague's  article,  already  cited, 
an  efficient  guide.  To  me,  I  must 
confess,  the  only  important  and  in- 
teresting item  in  the  series  is  the 
circumstance  that  in  1873,  ^s  soon  as 
he  had  heard  of  the  observations 
of  Mr.  Goodyear,  Clarence  King, 
though  no  longer  connected  with  any 
public  work  requiring  from  him 
further  attention  to  the  matter,  left 
New  York,  and,  at  his  own  expense, 
traveled  without  a  moment's  delay  to 
the  locality  concerned,  and  ascended 
the  true  Mount  Whitney,  simply  to 
settle,  for  his  own  satisfaction,  the 
question  which  (to  use  the  felicitous 
phrase  quoted  above  by  Prof.  Brewer) 
would  otherwise  have  '*  haunted  him." 

Another     incident     of     his     work 

in    California    deserves    mention  — 

namely,    his    discovery    in    January, 

1864,    on    the    Mariposa    estate,    of 

327 


Biographical  Notice 

fossils  determining  the  Jurassic  age  of 
the  gold-bearing  slates  of  California. 
There  was  at  the  time  a  controversy- 
over  the  question  of  "priority"  in 
this  settlement  of  a  scientific  question. 
Prof.  W.  P.  Blake  had  undoubtedly 
found  paleontological  evidence  tend- 
ing to  the  same  conclusion.  After 
a  laborious  study  of  the  contem- 
poraneous documents,  I  am  led  to 
believe  that  the  discovery  in  place, 
in  1863,  of  Jurassic  and  Triassic 
fossils  in  the  Genesee  Valley,  in 
Plumas  County,  was  the  earliest  well- 
authenticated  and  decisive  one,  and 
that  the  credit  of  this  discovery 
belongs  to  Prof.  Brewer,  though  it 
was,  in  Whitney's  subsequent  official 
reports,  attributed  to  him  and  his 
assistant  King  jointly.  But  it  was 
not  regarded  as  decisive  by  Whitney, 
because  it  did  not  include  the  observa- 
tion of  actual  gold-bearing  veins  in 
the  same   rock.     The  Mariposa  dis- 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

coveries  made  by  Blake  and  King  in 
the  country-rock  of  known  gold-mines 
were  conclusive.  The  question  of 
priority  as  to  these  discoveries,  involv- 
ing, as  it  does,  the  date  not  only  of 
the  discovery,  but  also  of  the  first 
public  announcement  and  the  first 
publication  thereof,  is  really  trivial  ; 
at  least,  it  will  not  be  discussed  here. 
The  record  of  science  is  not  that  of  a 
patent  law-suit,  in  which  mere  priority 
governs  important  rights  of  property  ; 
and  neither  Blake  nor  King  needed 
to  rest  his  claims  to  scientific  recog- 
nition upon  a  controversy  so  unim- 
portant. 

His  connection  with  the  California 
Survey  lasted  until  near  the  end  of 
1866  ;  but  during  that  period  he  was 
twice  loaned,  so  to  speak,  for  other 
service — once  to  the  Mariposa  Mining 
Company  and  once  to  the  United 
States.  The  latter  episode  occurred  in 
the  winter  of  1865-66,  when  he  acted 
329 


Biographical  Notice 

as  scientific  assistant  of  General  Mc- 
Dowell in  a  reconnaissance  of  the 
desert  regions  of  Southern  California 
and  part  of  Arizona.  His  friend 
Gardiner  was  detailed  to  the  same 
expedition.  That  it  was  not  free 
from  danger,  no  one  acquainted  with 
the  condition  of  Arizona  and  the  tem- 
per of  the  Apache  tribes  at  that  time 
need  be  told,  and  others  may  learn 
from  the  following  anecdote,  which  I 
heard  from  Mr.  King  himself,  and 
which  Mr.  Gardiner  confirms  : 

One  day,  on  the  road  to  Prescott, 
Arizona,  the  two  friends,  absorbed  in 
their  work,  had  ridden  ahead,  beyond 
sight  of  their  cavalry  escort,  when 
suddenly  a  couple  of  Apaches  sprang 
from  the  bushes,  under  the  very  noses 
of  their  horses,  with  arrows  aimed  at 
their  breasts,  drawn  to  the  head,  and 
each  held  from  fatal  flight  by  a  single 
hand.  Gardiner's  first  impulse  was 
to  draw  his  revolver ;  but  King  re- 
330 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

strained  him,  divining  instantly  that 
the  two  visible  assailants  were  not 
alone,  and  that  resistance  would  be 
useless.  Sure  enough,  at  a  signal 
given,  some  fifty  Apaches  emerged 
from  the  chapparal  and  surrounded 
them.  They  were  ordered  by  signs 
to  dismount  and  disrobe.  Intent  on 
saving  precious  time,  during  which 
the  cavalry  might  come  to  their 
rescue.  King  distracted  the  attention 
of  the  savages  for  several  minutes  by 
exhibiting  to  them  his  cistern-barom- 
eter, and  explaining,  in  Spanish  and 
by  signs,  that  it  was  a  new-fangled 
gun  of  very  long  range.  The  delay 
thus  gained,  however,  did  not  prevent 
their  captors  from  preparing  thongs 
for  their  captives,  and  lighting  a  fire 
to  be  placed  upon  their  breasts,  Ap- 
ache fashion,  after  they  should  have 
been  laid,  naked  and  bound,  upon  the 
earth.  Indeed,  they  were  already 
half-stripped  when  the  cavalry  became 
331 


Biographical  Notice 

visible,  and,  perceiving  the  situation 
at  a  glance,  charged  the  Indians  with 
such  vigor  and  speed  as  to  capture 
two  of  them  and  scatter  the  rest. 
(The  two  thus  taken  were  released, 
because  the  troops  were  not  strong 
enough  to  fight  the  whole  Wallapai 
tribe,  as  they  would  have  had  to  do 
if  they  had  attempted  to  hold  their 
prisoners.)  There  is  no  doubt  that 
King's  presence  of  mind,  coolness  and 
ingenuity  saved  the  lives  of  his  friend 
and  himself. 

In  1866,  circumstances  led  him  to 
resign  from  the  California  survey, 
and  to  attempt  a  larger  undertaking 
on  his  own  account.  Concerning  the 
reflections  and  considerations  which 
preceded  this  step,  Mr.  Gardiner 
contributes  the  following  interesting 
reminiscence  : 

'*  In  the  summer  of  1866  King  and 
I  were  working  together  on  a  survey 

332 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

of  the  region  east  of  the  Yosemite 
Valley.  I  had  previously  developed 
and  tested  methods  of  topographical 
work,  based  on  triangulation  from 
peak  to  peak  without  signals,  and 
gradually  expanding  the  scale  of  the 
triangles,  until  I  believed  that  the 
system  could  be  applied  to  very  large 
areas  in  a  country  where  peaks  were 
sharp,  so  that  the  closure  of  the  tri- 
angles could  be  made  very  accurate, 
compared  with  what  had  been  done 
in  reconnaisance-work.  During  that 
summer  we  discussed  the  possibility 
of  carrying  across  the  whole  Rocky 
Mountain  system  a  survey  based  on 
rapid  triangulation  without  signals, 
checked  with  astronomical  work,  and 
with  topographical  work  following 
the  methods  which  were  used  in  the 
Yosemite  Valley  survey  and  field- 
work  of  1866.  We  believed  that  by 
the  application  of  these  improved 
methods  in  topography  a  geological 
333 


Biographical  Notice 

survey  was  possible  which  would  be 
far  in  advance  of  anything  done  in 
the  geological  survey  of  California, 
or  any  other  geological  work  previ- 
ously done  in  the  western  mountain- 
system. 

**  Sitting  on  the  high  peaks  of  the 
Sierra,  overlooking  the  deserts  and 
ranges  of  Nevada  to  the  eastward, 
we  worked  out  the  general  outlines 
of  the  40th-parallel  survey-work.  It 
was  the  natural  outgrowth  of  our 
journey  across  the  plains,  our  experi- 
ence on  the  California  survey,  and 
our  exploration  of  Arizona,  coupled 
with  King's  great  aggressive  energy 
and  consciousness  of  power  to  per- 
suade men  to  do  the  thing  that  he 
thought  ought  to  be  done. 

''  Our  study  of  the  structure  of  the 
continent  in  our  journey  of  1863 
across  the  plains,  and  in  our  Arizona 
trip  of  1865,  led  us  to  feel  that  the 
survey  of  California  and  the  prob- 
334 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

lems  to  be  solved  there  were  but  a 
part,  and  possibly  a  minor  part,  of 
the  great  problems  of  the  structure, 
topographical  and  geological,  of  the 
whole  mountain-system  of  western 
America  from  the  plains  to  the  Pa- 
cific, and  it  was  from  this  point  of 
view  that  the  great  continental  cross- 
section  on  the  40th  parallel  was 
planned.  If  King  had  taken  charge 
of  the  department  of  economic  geol- 
ogy in  the  California  survey,  the  exe- 
cution of  this  wider  plan  might  have 
been  delayed  ;  but  the  plan  itself  was 
conceived  without  reference  to  our 
temporary  California  work." 

The  new  scheme  was  nothing  less 
than  a  transcontinental  topographical 
and  geological  survey,  for  which,  with 
sublime  audacity.  King  undertook  to 
obtain,  from  the  Executive  and  from 
Congress,  the  authority  and  the 
means. 

335 


Biographical  Notice 

The  resuk,  surprising  then,  and  sur- 
prising still,  was  a  generous  provision 
by  Congress  for  the  geological  survey 
of  a  strip  of  loo  miles  on  each  side 
of  the  40th  parallel  of  latitude  ;  in 
other  words,  of  the  belt  containing 
the  first  Pacific  railroad.  The  work 
was  to  continue  three  years,  and  was 
placed  expressly  under  the  charge  of 
Clarence  King  (then  25  years  old), 
subject  only  to  the  administrative 
control  of  Gen.  A.  A.  Humphreys, 
Chief  of  Engineers  of  the  U.  S. 
Army  —  a  brilliant  topographical  en- 
gineer as  well  as  military  commander, 
who  appreciated  the  young  explorer 
too  thoroughly  to  interfere  with  his 
plans  and  methods.* 

The  difficulties  and  dangers  of  this 
work  were  not  small.     King's  party, 

*The  first  legislation  of  Congress  did  not 
cover  all  this.    It  was  simply  a  brief  provision 
in  an  appropriation  bill,  authorizing  the  ap- 
plication of  certain  unexpended  remainders 
336 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

reaching  California  by  way  of  Panama, 
spent  three  months  in  preparing  its 
outfit  and  reaching  its  field.  Many 
times  it  seemed  as  if  portions  of  the 
scheme  must  be  abandoned  ;  but  the 
leader's  enthusiasm,  energy  and  re- 
source inspired  his  associates,  and 
made  them  invincible.  At  the  end 
of  three  years  the  work  was  not  fin- 
ished ;  but  its  success  and  value  had 
been  so  brilliantly  demonstrated  that 
the  period  was  extended  to  seven 
years,  by  the  unsolicited  action  of 
Congress. 

An  incident  reported  by  Mr.  Em- 
mons illustrates  the  courage  and  de- 
cision which  belonged  to  King  as  one 
" born  to  command.' 

In   1868,   during  his  field-work  in 

of  former  appropriations  in  the  continuance 

of  surveys  for  a  transcontinental  wagon-road. 

Upon  this  modest  beginning,  King  won  both 

popular    and   legislative   recognition   of   his 

great  enterprise. 
22 

337 


Biographical  Notice 

Nevada,  annoyed  by  frequent  deser- 
tions from  his  cavahy  escort — a  small 
detail,  under  the  charge  of  a  sergeant 
— King  resolved  to  make  an  example 
of  the  next  case  of  the  kind.  The 
occasion  was  provided  by  a  specially 
"bad  man,"  who,  while  the  party,  en- 
gaged in  their  day's  work,  were  ab- 
sent from  the  camp,  fitted  himself 
out  with  equipments  belonging  to 
the  Survey,  and  '*  struck "  for  the 
Pacific  coast,  nearly  twelve  hours  be- 
fore he  was  missed.  King  and  the 
sergeant  started  at  once  in  pursuit. 
At  about  sunset  of  the  next  day  the 
trail  was  seen  to  be  heading  for  a  nat- 
ural pass  in  the  next  range  (one  of 
the  short  meridional  ranges  charac- 
teristic of  Nevada).  Leaving  the 
trail.  King  and  his  companion,  by  a 
hard  night-ride,  made  a  detour  over 
the  mountain,  and  reached  at  sunrise 
the  western  outlet  of  the  pass.  Here 
he  saw  the  fugitive's  horse  picketed 
338 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

near  a  willow  thicket,  which  sur- 
rounded a  spring,  and  in  the  middle 
of  which  the  man  himself  was  pre- 
paring his  breakfast.  King  left  his 
horse  in  the  sergeant's  charge  and 
entered  the  thicket  alone,  with  his 
"  hair-trigger  "  Colt  revolver.  He 
afterward  confessed  that  the  situa- 
tion required  all  his  "nerve."  The 
man,  who  was  known  as  a  desperate 
character,  might  have  heard  him  com- 
ing and  made  preparation  to  shoot 
him  at  sight.  But,  after  a  minute 
of  suspense,  the  climax  was  tame 
enough.  The  deserter,  taken  by  sur- 
prise, was  marched  at  the  muzzle  of 
King's  pistol  back  to  camp,  and 
thence  sent  under  guard  to  the  mili- 
tary prison  at  Alcatraz — and  there 
were  no  more  desertions  from  that 
party.  As  for  King's  "  nerve,"  it  must 
have  been  little,  if  at  all,  disturbed; 
for  a  man  cannot  long  keep  his  finger 
still  on  a  hair-trigger,  if  he  is  agitated  ! 

339 


Biographical  Notice 

The  following  account  of  another 
of  King's  adventures  is  given  by  Mr. 
Emmons,  an  eye-witness  and  a  par- 
ticipant. 

*'  At  the  close  of  the  field-work  of 
1 87 1,  King  joined  my  party,  which 
had  been  engaged  through  the  sum- 
mer in  the  Uinta  Mountains,  for  a 
tour  of  inspection  along  the  northern 
frontier  of  that  range.  One  day,  as 
we  were  starting  on  an  untried  route 
across  a  piece  of  *  bad-land '  country, 
we  spied,  soon  after  breaking  camp,  a 
grizzly  bear  in  the  distance  ;  and  all 
hands  at  once  gave  chase.  The  bear 
at  first  disappeared  in  a  region  of 
sand-dunes,  where  the  party  got  scat- 
tered. After  some  hours'  trailing, 
King,  Wilson  and  I,  with  a  couple  of 
soldiers,  ran  the  trail  into  a  typical 
net-work  of  bad-land  ravines — a  se- 
ries of  narrow  gullies  with  perpen-' 
dicular  walls,  quite  inaccessible  for 
340 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

horses.  Tying  the  heads  of  our  five 
animals  together  (for  there  was  n't  a 
bush  big  enough  to  hitch  them  to), 
we  followed  the  huge,  human-looking 
tracks  down  one  ravine  and  up  an- 
other on  foot,  each  with  rifle  in  hand, 
and  King  in  the  lead.  (There  was  a 
pretended,  but  not  thoroughly  heart- 
felt, emulation  to  occupy  this  place  \\ 
Not  only  were  we  constantly  turning 
sharp  corners,  but  the  trail  would  run 
into  caves  made  by  changes  in  the 
course  of  the  dry  stream-bed,  which 
would  continue  for  some  distance 
under  a  bend  in  the  wall  of  a  gully. 
The  bear  evidently  ran  into  many  of 
these  caves,  passing  out  of  each  at 
the  other  end.  Finally,  four  hours 
after  starting,  we  had  run  him  to 
ground.  We  had  found  a  cave  with 
his  track  going  in  at  one  end  and 
not  coming  out  at  the  other ;  and, 
by  putting  our  ears  against  the  bank, 
we  could  hear  his  labored  breathing. 
341 


Biographical  Notice 

The  cave  was  unusually  long — per- 
haps 30  or  40  feet.  Its  upper  end, 
by  which  the  bear  had  entered,  was 
hardly  more  than  a  foot  high  ;  the 
other  opening  was  high  enough  to 
be  entered  on  hands  and  knees. 
The  grizzly  could  be  only  heard,  not 
seen  ;  but  the  sound  indicated  that 
he  was  nearer  the  upper  end.  Va- 
rious attempts  at  dislodgment  by 
smoking,  etc.,  were  unsuccessful ;  and 
finally  King,  who  had  poked  his  head 
far  enough  in  at  the  upper  end  to 
see  in  the  dark,  said  he  could  dis- 
tinguish the  animal's  eyes,  and  would 
go  in  and  shoot  him.  So  I  was  sta- 
tioned at  the  lower  opening  in  case 
the  bear  should  come  out  that  way, 
and  King  wriggled  himself  into  the 
little  hole  at  the  upper  end,  until  he 
was  far  enough  in  to  raise  his  body 
on  one  elbow  and  put  his  rifle  to  his 
shoulder.  Even  then  he  could  not 
distinguish  the  form  of  the  bear  in 
342 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

the  darkness  ;  but  he  could  see  the 
gleam  of  its  two  eyes  and  feel  its 
hot  breath.  Nor  could  he,  at  first, 
distinguish  the  sights  of  his  rifle ; 
but,  after  accustoming  himself  some- 
what to  the  darkness,  he  aimed  as 
best  he  could  between  the  eyes,  and 
fired.  The  big  soldier  who  had  been 
stationed  for  that  purpose  behind 
him,  at  once  dragged  him  out  by  the 
heels,  and,  in  his  excitement,  kept  on 
dragging  long  after  he  had  got  his 
man  out.  As  a  result.  King's  face 
was  badly  scratched  in  the  sand. 
We  were  not  absolutely  sure  that 
the  bear  was  dead  ;  but,  as  there  was 
no  sound,  I  went  into  my  end  of  the 
cave,  and  succeeded  in  getting  a  strap 
round  its  neck,  by  means  of  which 
and  the  combined  slow  tugging  of 
all  hands  we  succeeded  in  dragging 
it  into  daylight.  We  then  saw  that 
King's  ball  had  struck  true,  and  pene- 
trated the  brain." 

343 


Biographical  Notice 

Mr.  Hague  contributes  another 
reminiscence  of  King's  self-posses- 
sion under  exciting  circumstances. 
He  was  pursuing  an  elk,  which  finally 
turned  and  charged  upon  him.  For 
a  moment  he  was  in  considerable 
personal  danger ;  but  he  came  out 
victor,  as  usual.  Listening,  some 
time  after,  to  King's  story  of  the 
adventure,  Hague  said,  **  King,  how 
did  that  elk  look  to  you  at  the 
critical  moment  ?  "  "  Like  a  first-class 
hat-rack  on  a  mule ! "  was  the  in- 
stant reply. 

It  was  in  the  first  or  second  year 
of  my  field-work  as  United  States 
Commissioner  of  Mining  Statistics 
that  I  made  the  acquaintance  of 
Clarence  King.  He  was  at  that 
time  camped  with  a  small  party  on 
a  terrace  overlooking  the  Salt  Lake 
Valley,  and  invited  me  to  dine  with 
him  in  his  camp.  I  had  just  come 
from    a   very   rapid   examination   of 

344 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

some  of  the  cations  in  the  Wahsatch 
range,  and  he  had  been  traversing 
the  Uinta  Mountains  farther  east. 
I  remember  the  surprise  with  which 
I  found  him  maintaining  in  the  field, 
as  far  as  possible,  the  decencies  and 
elegancies  of  city  life.  Knowing  of 
him  as  an  explorer,  hunter  and  ath- 
lete already  famous,  I  could  scarcely 
recognize  my  own  expectation  in  the 
polished  gentleman  who,  in  immacu- 
late linen,  silk  stockings,  low  shoes, 
and  clothing  without  a  wrinkle,  re- 
ceived me  at  a  dinner,  simple  enough 
in  its  material  constituents,  but  served 
in  a  style  which  I  had  not  found 
west  of  the  Missouri.  When  I  at- 
tempted to  make  fun  of  him  for 
"  roughing  it "  in  this  )Vay,  he  re- 
plied seriously  :  *'  It  is  all  very  well 
for  you,  who  lead  a  civilized  life  nine 
or  ten  months  in  the  year,  and  only 
get  into  the  field  for  a  few  weeks 
at  a   time,  to  let   yourself   down  to 

345 


Biographical  Notice 

the  pioneer  level,  and  disregard  the 
small  elegancies  of  dress  and  man- 
ners which  you  can  afterwards  easily 
resume,  because  you  have  not  laid 
them  aside  long  enough  to  forget 
them.  But  I,  who  have  been  for 
years  constantly  in  the  field,  would 
have  lost  my  good  habits  altogether 
if  I  had  not  taken  every  possible 
opportunity  to  practice  them.  We 
don't  dine  this  way  every  day,  but 
we  do  so  whenever  we  can."  I  had 
abundant  opportunity  in  after  years 
to  see  King  at  work  as  well  as  at 
rest ;  and  I  never  knew  a  man  more 
eager,  tireless  and  reckless  in  field- 
work  above  or  underground,  while 
at  the  same  time  he  maintained 
always  the'  instinct  and  practice  of 
refined  manners.  It  was,  indeed, 
almost  invariably  his  custom  to  have 
with  him  a  personal  attendant,  who 
looked  after  his  clothing,  etc.  One 
such,  who  was  with  him  for  years, 
346 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

came  to  be  an  invaluable  assistant 
in  geological  underground  work,  ob- 
serving with  great  acuteness,  although 
without  scientific  knowledge,  indica- 
tions which  more  learned  men  might 
have  overlooked.  I  cannot  forbear 
an  anecdote  told  me  by  King  of 
another  valet  of  his,  whose  life  was 
in  his  work,  and  who  judged  of  all 
things  in  the  world  by  their  relations 
to  it.  At  a  gentleman's  country- 
seat,  with  good  servants'  accommo- 
dations, ample  facilities  for  blacking 
boots  and  brushing  clothing,  well- 
trimmed  lawns  and  genteel  society, 
he  was  in  Paradise  ;  but  experience 
in  the  muddy  or  dusty  wilderness 
half  paralyzed  his  usefulness  and 
wholly  quenched  his  enjoyment.  On 
one  occasion,  attended  by  this  man 
only.  King  made  his  way  to  the 
Grand  Canon  of  the  Colorado,  and 
stood  for  a  time  dumb  upon  its  brink, 
overwhelmed  with  the  vastness  and 

347 


Biographical  Notice 

the  glory  of  the  scene.  At  last  it 
seemed  to  him  that  he  must  speak ; 
and,  as  he  turned  away,  he  said  : 
"  Well,  Joe,  how  does  it  strike  you  ?  " 
*'  It  is  no  place  for  a  gentleman, 
sir  !  "  was  the  reply.* 

*  Editorial  Note.  —  The  above-named 
"  Joe  "  might  well  have  been  the  same  long- 
time manservant  (Alexander),  of  whom  a 
story  was  told  some  twenty  years  ago,  which 
well  exemplifies  his  gentlemanly  instincts  and 
cultivated  manners. 

On  a  certain  occasion  when  Mr.  Abram  S. 
Hewitt  and  Mr.  King  were  together  in  Paris, 
it  became  necessary  for  Mr.  Hewitt  to  cross 
over  to  London  at  a  time  when  he  was  so  far 
from  well  that  his  attempt  to  make  the  jour- 
ney alone  would  have  been  very  imprudent. 
On  Mr.  King's  urgent  insistence  Mr.  Hewitt 
consented  to  take  Alexander  with  him  as  his 
personal  attendant.  When  they  arrived  at 
the  Paris  station  of  departure,  Mr.  Hewitt 
and  Alexander  were  both  surprised  and 
amused  at  meeting  the  most  courteous  of 
railway  officials,  who,  evidently  awaiting  the 
coming  of  expected  travelers,  immediately 
began  to  render  every  possible  service,  re- 
348 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

The  most  famous  incident  of  the 
Fortieth  Parallel  Survey  was  the  ex- 
posure  by   King  of   the  "  Diamond 

lieving  them  of  all  hand-luggage  and  per- 
sonal impedimenta,  and  escorting  them  to 
a  specially  reserved  railway  carriage,  into 
which  the  travelers  were  unhesitatingly  as- 
sisted, Alexander,  much  against  his  will,  pre- 
ceding Mr.  Hewitt,  under  the  irresistible 
guidance  of  their  escorting  officials. 

These  extraordinary  attentions  were  con- 
tinued throughout  the  journey,  and  were 
only  clearly  understood  when  it  became 
known,  later  on,  that  the  officials  of  the  rail- 
way company  at  Paris  had  been  requested  to 
show  their  most  respectful  attentions  to  a 
certain  Oriental  Prince,  who,  attended  by  an 
English  companion,  was  expected  to  leave 
Paris  for  London  by  the  same  train  which 
Mr.  Hewitt  had  also  chosen  for  his  journey, 
with  the  result  that  Alexander  was  mistaken 
for  the  expected  Prince  and  Mr.  Hewitt  for 
his  gentleman-in-waiting.  It  is  said  that 
Alexander  bore  with  becoming  dignity  the 
honors  thus  unwittingly  thrust  upon  him, 
while,  at  the  same  time,  he  failed  in  no  re- 
respect  in  his  duties  to  Mr.  Hewitt. — J.  D.  H. 
349 


Biographical  Notice 

Swindle"  of  1872.  A  full  account  of 
this  episode  will  be  found  in  the  Engin- 
eering and  Mining  Journal  of  Dec.  i  o, 
1872,  together  with  my  own  editorial 
comments,  based  upon  private  know- 
ledge as  well  as  published  reports. 
The  whole  affair  reflected  the  greatest 
credit  upon  King's  personal  honor  and 
loyal  friendship — its  most  creditable 
feature  being  the  way  in  which  he 
managed  the  exposure  so  as  to  prevent 
further  loss  by  innocent  investors,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  to  avert  unmerited 
disgrace  from  equally  innocent  pro- 
moters and  experts.  By  a  sudden  and 
sensational  disclosure  he  might  have 
won  cheap  distinction  for  himself,  at  the 
cost  of  cruel  injustice  to  others.  .  .  . 
The  great  success  and  popularity 
of  the  United  States  Geological  Sur- 
vey has  been  due,  without  doubt,  not 
only  to  the  liberal  support  of  Con- 
gress, which  King,  more  than  any 
other  one  man,  was  able  to  influence, 
350 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

and  to  the  wise  organization  and  far- 
reaching  plans  which  he  impressed 
upon  this  institution  in  its  creation, 
but  also  to  the  ability,  loyalty,  ac- 
tivity and  intelligent  enthusiasm  of 
the  young  men  who  received  their 
training  under  him  during  the  For- 
tieth Parallel  Survey,  and  many  of 
whom  have  since  won  high  reputa- 
tion by  their  independent  researches. 
The  recent  volume  on  ''  Ore  De- 
posits," published  by  this  Institute, 
bears  testimony  to  the  extraordinary 
advance  in  that  department  of  geo- 
logical science  in  which  American 
observers  may  fairly  be  said  to  have 
taken  the  lead.  No  doubt  they  have 
won  this  distinction  largely  by  reason 
of  three  exceptionally  favorable  con- 
ditions, namely :  the  vast  and  rich 
field  for  investigation  offered  by  the 
territory  of  the  United  States ;  the 
active  development  of  this  field  by 
mining  ;  and  the  liberal  expenditures, 
#  351 


Biographical  Notice 

both  State  and  Federal,  which  have 
been  made  for  the  study  of  economic 
geology.  But  these  favorable  con- 
ditions would  have  amounted  to  noth- 
ing without  the  men  competent  to 
take  advantage  of  them,  and  the  wise 
provision  made  for  such  investiga- 
tions by  the  first  Director  of  the 
U.  S.  Geological  Survey. 

King's  important  contributions  to 
scientific  literature,  apart  from  his 
work  on  public  surveys,  were  very 
few.  Probably  the  most  important 
were  his  address  at  the  Sheffield  Sci- 
entific School,  in  June,  1877,  ^^  ''  Ca- 
tastrophism  and  the  Evolution  of 
Environment,"  and  his  paper  on  **  The 
Age  of  the  Earth,"  published  Jan- 
uary, 1893,  in  the  American  Journal 
of  Science. 

I  know  that  King  considered  the 
praise  of  this  work  by  Lord  Kelvin 
as  one  of  the  greatest  honors  ever 
bestowed  upon  him. 
352 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

To  general  literature  he  contrib- 
uted one  delightful  book,  Mountain- 
eering in  the  Sierra  Nevada^  and  a 
few  magazine  articles.  The  book  de- 
scribes the  scenery  and  the  people 
encountered  by  him  in  his  early  Cali- 
fornia experiences,  and  has  never 
been  surpassed  as  a  gallery  of  vivid, 
graceful,  and  imaginative  yet  accur- 
ate sketches  of  nature  and  men.  Bret 
Harte's  admirable  work  is  more  ro- 
mantic, more  artificial,  less  delicately 
humorous,  and  less  perfect  in  style. 
Indeed,  considering  the  relatively 
small  amount  of  King's  literary  work, 
his  mastery  of  style  was  wonderful. 
Perhaps  the  most  perfect  specimen 
of  it  was  his  fanciful  sketch,  The 
Helmet  of  Mambrino,  published  in 
the  Century, 

Doubtless  one  reason  why  he  did 
not  publish  more  was,  as  Mr.  Em- 
mons suggests,  his  fastidious  taste, 
which  led  him  to  be  dissatisfied  with 

^    «3  353 


Biographical  Notice 

anything  less  than  the  best  work. 
But  this  is  not,  to  me,  a  full  explana- 
tion. The  possessor  of  such  a  gift  of 
expression,  and  so  rich  a  repertory 
of  knowledge,  and  suggestions  wait- 
ing for  utterance,  usually  feels,  also, 
the  spontaneous  impulse  to  make  use 
of  them.  King  was  not  an  exception. 
He  talked  often  of  things  he  would 
like  to  write,  and  intended  to  write, 
some  day.  But  he  never  found  time 
for  such  labors,  partly  because  of  the 
exigent  social  demands  made  upon 
him ;  partly  because  of  the  necessity 
for  more  active  and  arduous  occupa- 
tion, to  which  he  was  repeatedly,  if 
not  continuously,  subject.  A  man 
can  do  literary  work  in  his  stolen 
leisure,  and  yet  be  a  darling  of  soci- 
ety, shining  brightly  in  the  club  and 
at  the  dinner-table ;  or  he  may  be 
active  in  business  and  professional 
engagements,  and  still  keep  enough 
time   and  strength  for  quieter  pur- 

354 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

suits.  But  he  cannot  be  and  do  all 
three.  King,  especially,  could  not  do 
this,  because  his  brilliant  talk  exer- 
cised and  fatigued  the  same  faculties 
as  if  it  had  been  pen-work.  If  he  felt 
the  impulse  of  utterance  he  wore  it 
out  in  talking,  and  often  threw  away 
upon  the  transitory  entertainment  of 
a  few  what  might  have  been  the  en- 
during delight  of  a  multitude.  An 
instance  was  furnished  by  a  dinner- 
party in  Washington,  just  before  the 
outbreak  of  the  late  Spanish  war,  at 
which  King  was  present,  and  ex- 
pressed with  vivacity  his  views  and 
expectations.  He  had  lived  in  Cuba, 
was  intimate  with  some  of  the  patriot 
leaders  there,  and  was  thoroughly  ac- 
quainted with  their  plans  and  cam- 
paigns.* But  he  had  also  sailed  the 
Pacific,  and  had  an  intelligent  notion 
of   the  situation  in  the  far  East,  of 

*  See  his  Forum  articles,  "  Shall  Cuba  be 
Free  ?  "  and  "  Fire  and  Sword  in  Cuba." 

355 


Biographical  Notice 

which  few  of  us  were  specially  think- 
ing at  that  time.  And  his  prediction 
was  this  :  **  If  war  is  declared  with 
Spain,  the  first  thing  to  happen  will 
be  that  George  Dewey  will  go  into 
Manila  harbor  and  sink  the  whole 
Spanish  fleet!"  If  he  had  put  that 
day's  talk  in  print,  with  what  prophet's 
glory  it  would  have  crowned  him ! 
Long  after,  he  said  to  me,  ''  I  was  a 
little  startled  to  have  the  thing  so 
quickly  and  completely  come  to  pass  ; 
yet  I  made  the  remark  upon  good 
reasons.  I  had  lived  with  Dewey, 
and  knew  him  well ;  I  knew  where  he 
was,  and  that  he  could  not  stay  there 
after  a  declaration  of  war ;  if  he  had 
to  go  somewhere,  he  would  be  sure 
to  go  where  the  Spanish  fleet  was ; 
and  if  he  found  it,  he  would  sink 
it !  You  see,  the  argument  was 
complete  ! " 

After  all,   the   chief   hindrance  to 
King's  literary  activity  was  the  neces- 
356 


C      zL 

I  - 

><      , 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

sity  of  earning  money  in  his  profes- 
sion. Several  times  in  the  course  of 
his  Hfe  he  suffered  financial  reverses, 
which  forced  him  practically  to  begin 
over  again,  and  to  work  as  a  mining 
engineer  in  the  field — sometimes  di- 
recting or  advising,  sometimes  valu- 
ing, sometimes  buying  and  selling. 
Of  three  companies  which  opened,  re- 
spectively,— the  Las  Prietas  mine,  in 
Sonora,  the  Las  Yedras,  in  Sinaloa, 
and  the  Sombrerete,  in  Zacatecas, — 
he  was  the  president ;  and  he  was 
actively  connected  with  the  Rich- 
mond, at  Eureka,  Nevada,  and  other 
American  mines. 

On  many  occasions  he  was  engaged 
as  an  expert  witness  in  mining  law- 
suits. I  need  hardly  say  that,  while 
he  was  in  the  service  of  the  United 
States,  he  gave  no  such  assistance  to 
private  interests.  Indeed,  he  was 
quick  to  perceive  that  the  members 
of  the  public  scientific  surveys  must 

359 


Biographical  Notice 

be  kept  free  from  any  suspicion  of 
utilizing,  for  the  benefit  of  any  party 
smaller  than  the  whole  of  a  mining 
community,  the  knowledge  gained  in 
that  capacity ;  and  he  exacted  from 
every  subordinate  a  pledge  in  this 
particular,  corresponding  with  his  own 
practice.  But  when  not  thus  honor- 
ably bound,  he  repeatedly  acted  as 
adviser,  or  gave  expert  testimony,  for 
clients.  In  this  line,  having  both 
encountered  Mr.  King  as  an  opponent 
and  benefited  by  his  assistance  as  a 
colleague,  I  may  claim  to  be  qualified 
as  a  critic  of  his  work  —  or  rather  of 
his  character  as  shown  by  his  work. 

In  the  first  place,  he  was,  as  I  think 
an  expert  witness  ought  to  be,  an 
honest  partisan.  He  did  not  carry  to 
the  witness  stand  the  doubts  or  un- 
certainties which  he  might  have  felt 
during  his  previous  study  of  the  case. 
He  came  forward  with  a  theory  al- 
ready deliberately  adopted,  and  for 
360 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

that  theory  (In  the  absence  of  new 
evidence  disproving  it)  he  was  pre- 
pared to  fight. 

But  this  final  temper  and  attitude 
had  the  indispensable  safeguard  of  an 
inexhaustible  curiosity  and  candor  in 
previous  inquiry.  I  have  known,  in 
my  time,  many  mining  experts,  and 
their  personal  methods  of  studying 
mining  cases.  But  I  never  met  King's 
equal  in  insatiable  desire  to  find  out 
beforehand  anything  that  anybody 
else  knew  or  could  know,  whether  it 
were  relevant  and  important  to  the 
case  in  hand  or  not.  I  can  remember 
him  as  going  into  a  mine  at  early 
morning,  taking  his  lunch  with  him ; 
coming  out  late  in  the  afternoon ; 
bathing  and  dressing  for  dinner  ;  then, 
aroused  by  some  casual  table-talk, 
putting  on  his  underground  clothes 
again,  and  spending  the  greater  part 
of  the  night  in  the  mine,  just  to 
**  settle  the  point"  —  though  the  point 
361 


Biographical  Notice 

was  not  perceptibly  pertinent  to  the 
immediate  case  in  which  he  was 
engaged. 

In  general,  his  exhaustive  prep- 
aration and  wonderful  general 
knowledge,  reinforced  by  his  alert 
self-possession,  ready  wit  and  unfail- 
ing good-nature,  made  him  a  most 
effective  expert  witness  and  a  terror 
to  cross-examiners. 

After  retiring  from  the  U.  S.  Geo- 
logical Survey,  King  spent  three 
years  (1882,  'S^  and  '84)  studying  the 
geology  of  Scotland,  Switzerland  and 
Central  Europe,  occasionally  visiting 
a  mining  district,  like  Bilbao,  Rio 
Tinto  or  Almaden,  and  enjoying  the 
social  courtesies  eagerly  extended 
to  him  by  the  leaders  of  scientific 
thought,  to  whom  his  work  had  al- 
ready made  him  known  and  his  charm- 
ing personality  soon  endeared  him. 

At  a  later  period,  after  recovery 
from  a  severe  illness,  he  spent  a  win- 
362 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

ter  in  Cuba,  at  the  country-house  of 
an  American  friend,  and  became 
deeply  interested  not  only  in  the 
politics,  but  also  in  the  general  and 
economic  geology  of  that  island, 
examining  particularly  some  of  the 
important  iron  and  manganese  de- 
posits of  the  Santiago  district.  He 
conceived  a  high  opinion  of  the  min- 
eral wealth  of  Cuba ;  and  it  was  at 
least  his  dream,  if  not  his  definite 
intention  and  hope,  that  some  day, 
when  Cuba  should  be  free,  he  would 
organize  for  that  field,  as  he  had  done 
for  a  greater,  a  national  geological 
survey. 

I  notice  that  Mr.  Emmons  *  dates 
the  final  illness  of  Clarence  King  from 
an  attack  of  pneumonia  in  1901. 
From  personal  knowledge,  I  would 
put  the  beginning  further  back. 
During    the   spring    of   1900   I    was 

*  In  his  foregoing  memoir  quoted  from  the 
American  Journal  of  Science. 
363 


Biographical  Notice 

associated  with  King  in  the  long  trial 
of  a  case  at  Butte,  Montana.  The 
season  was  unusually  mild  and  the 
atmosphere  of  Butte  unusually  clear. 
Perhaps  these  balmy  conditions 
tempted  people  to  imprudent  expos- 
ure. At  all  events,  the  town  was 
afflicted  with  a  veritable  pestilence  of 
pneumonia.  In  popular  rumor  the  fa- 
tality was  90  per  cent;  in  actual  statis- 
tics it  was  54  per  cent,  of  all  the  victims 
attacked.  Among  the  counsel,  par- 
ties and  witnesses  in  our  case,  or  in 
their  families,  eleven  died  during  the 
trial.  King  prepared  himself  with 
his  usual  pertinacity  and  industry, 
spending  many  hours  underground 
and  taking  prudent  precautions 
against  chills  ;  but  he  had  an  annoy- 
ing hoarseness,  which  he  could  not 
shake  off.  After  giving  his  testimony 
he  made  a  rapid  trip  to  Salt  Lake, 
for  -change  of  air  and  altitude,  and 
in  a  couple  of  weeks  returned,  still 
364 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

uncomfortable,  though  not  alarmed. 
But  by  that  time  the  rest  of  us  were 
anxious  for  him,  and,  against  his  will, 
made  him  consult  a  physician,  who 
put  him  to  bed  instantly.  This 
prompt  measure  saved  him  from  a 
serious  illness ;  but  the  escape  was  a 
narrow  one,  as  he  was  willing  to  ac- 
knowledge after  a  few  days'  confine- 
ment. He  was  not  allowed  to  take 
further  part  in  the  trial,  and  it  was 
over  before  he  was  able  to  leave  his 
room.  When  he  told  me  that  he  ex- 
pected to  go  to  the  Klondike  that 
summer,  I  felt  a  thrill  of  apprehen- 
sion, and  ventured  a  remonstrance. 
But,  like  all  habitually  healthy  peo- 
ple, he  thought  nothing  more  of  a 
temporary  illness,  once  it  was  over ; 
and  to  the  Klondike  he  went,  with 
the  seeds  of  pulmonary  trouble  al- 
ready sown  in  him.  After  the  ex- 
posures of  the  Klondike  trip  he 
had  a  second  and  severe  attack  of 
365 


Biographical  Notice 

pneumonia,  brought  on  in  1901  by  a 
fresh  exposure  during  the  examina- 
tion of  a  mining  property  in  inclem- 
ent weather.  From  that  time  the 
progress  of  tuberculosis  was  rapid 
and  irresistible.  With  superb  cour- 
age and  calmness  he  fought  to  the 
end  the  hopeless  battle,  seeking  iii 
vain,  at  Prescott  and  Los  Angeles, 
cure  of  his  malady,  and  finally  re- 
turning from  Southern  California  to 
Phoenix,  Arizona,  where  he  died  with- 
out pain,  December  24,  1901.  With 
characteristic  unselfishness  he  had 
refused  all  offers  of  companionship 
from  friends  or  relatives,  and  made 
his  last  brave  fight  alone. 

Many,  no  doubt,  have  had  ampler 
and  more  continuous  association  with 
Clarence  King  than  I  enjoyed  during 
the  one  third  of  a  century  covered 
by  our  unbroken  friendship.  He 
was  one  who  could  pick  up,  after  any 
lapse  of  time,  however  long,  the  asso- 
366 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

ciations  and  reciprocities  of  the  past, 
and  make  the  intervening  separation 
seem  not  to  have  been  at  all.  How- 
ever one  might  h^ve  been  offended 
by  his  neglect  to  answer  letters,  or  let 
himself  be  heard  from  in  any  way, 
five  minutes  of  his  presence  was 
enough  to  show  that  the  old  friend, 
unchanged,  had  come  to  see  the  old 
friend,  expecting  an  unchanged  wel- 
come. And  what  he  expected,  he 
received.  I  never  heard  of  anybody 
who  refused  to  forgive  Clarence  King 
for  neglect  of  conventional  obliga- 
tions— and  I  fancy  all  who  knew  him 
had  occasion  for  such  forgiveness. 
My  own  theory  of  the  matter  is,  that 
he  was  so  universally  beloved,  and 
responded  so  easily  to  congenial  com- 
panions, as  to  make  it  impossible  for 
him  to  keep  up,  by  the  usual  means 
of  visits,  letters,  etc.,  the  innumerable 
ties  which  he  thus  formed,  without 
sacrificing  all  the  more  serious  labors 
367 


Biographical  Notice 

and  ambitions  of  his  Hfe.  A  man 
can  forswear  society  akogether  and 
do  his  Hfe's  work ;  or  he  can  give 
himself  up  to  society  and  let  his  work 
go.  King  took  a  middle  course,  con- 
tinuing to  study  and  to  labor,  while 
he  freely  gave  and  received  social  en- 
joyment, but  defied  the  engrossing 
demands  of  formal  etiquette.  And 
"society"  forgave  him,  because  it 
could  not  have  him  on  any  other 
terms. 

But  perhaps  it  was  given  to  me,  in 
hours  of  unconstrained  communion, 
to  gain  a  deeper  glimpse  into  his 
character  than  many  days  of  mere  su- 
perficial association  could  have  given. 
And  I  found  him  clean  to  the  bot- 
tom ;  full  of  noble  scorn  for  things 
trivial,  vile  and  selfish  ;  alive  to  the 
highest  ideals  ;  ready  for  the  service 
of  human  needs. 

It  was  in  such  an  hour  that  he  told 
me  (veiling  with  a  transparent  whim- 
368 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

sical  humor  of  narration  his  earnest 
feehng)  of  his  **  Sunday-school "  in 
London,  where  he  used  to  meet, 
on  Sunday  afternoons,  the  girls  em- 
ployed in  Cross  &  BlackwelFs  famous 
pickle-factory,  and  talk  to  them  in 
fashion  **  not  quite  orthodox,  perhaps, 
but  then,  again,  not  so  awfully  heter- 
odox either  ! "  —  and  how,  finding 
his  Sunday-school  utterly  ignorant  of 
the  beauties  and  joys  of  green  grass 
and  flowers,  he  organized  an  excur- 
sion for  them,  securing,  by  unlimited 
use  of  his  aristocratic  acquaintances, 
unprecedented  privileges  for  it,  so 
that  his  delighted  proteges,  conveyed 
and  convoyed  by  him  on  a  special 
train,  not  only  had  afternoon  tea  on 
the  lawn  in  Windsor  Park,  but  the 
dear  old  Queen  herself  came  out  of 
the  palace,  walked  among  them,  and 
accepted  a  cup  of  tea  from  a  proud 
member  of  the  company  !  King's  wit- 
ty account  of  his  **  happy  hen-party" 
'^  369 


Biographical  Notice 

I  cannot  undertake  to  reproduce. 
But  there  was  for  me  something 
dearer  and  deeper  in  it  than  its  spark- 
Hng  surface. 

Few  among  those  who  have 
achieved  distinction  in  the  labors 
or  the  literature  of  science  have 
also  impressed  upon  their  generation 
a  vivid  sense  of  their  own  person- 
ality. In  the  majority  of  instances, 
I  think,  such  men  have  hid  them- 
selves in  their  work,  sacrificing  to  it 
the  varied  enjoyments  and  associa- 
tions through  which  they  might  have 
become  better  known  to  their  con- 
temporaries. Perhaps  we  might  say 
that,  in  this  age,  scientific  distinction 
must  be  won,  as  a  rule,  in  some  spe- 
cialty, and  at  the  cost  of  an  exclusive 
devotion  to  that  one  department ; 
so  that  the  great  specialist,  however 
versatile  he  might  have  become,  if  all 
his  original  endowments  had  been 
utilized,  is  at  last,  to  the  eyes  of  men, 
370 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

simply  the  impersonal  representative 
of  one  idea  or  sphere.  On  this  point 
we  have  the  frank,  pathetic  confes- 
sion of  Darwin,  that  many  aesthetic 
faculties  and  tastes,  once  his,  became 
atrophied  in  the  course  of  years  de- 
voted to  a  single  study.  After  the 
death  of  such  a  man,  a  sympathetic 
biographer  may  lift  the  veil  and  show 
to  all  what  had  been  known  before  to 
few, — his  personal  traits  and  charms  ; 
thus  filling  up  with  detail  and  color 
the  hard,  meager  outline  of  him  pre- 
sented by  his  special  work  alone. 

Clarence  King  did  not  thus  sacri- 
fice himself  to  his  work.  His  buoy- 
ant personality  dominated  his  whole 
career.  Gay,  versatile,  debonair,  irre- 
sistible, gentle,  honorable,  *'  tender 
and  true,"  he  was  greater  and  dearer 
than  his  work.  We  shall  have,  as 
we  have  had,  many  prophets  and 
pioneers  of  science  ;  but  the  King  is 
dead — and  there  is  no  King  to  follow  ! 
371 


Biographical  Notice 


The  following  list  comprises  the 
principal  published  works  of  Clarence 
King: 

Mountaineering  in  the  Sierra  Nevada^  Bos- 
ton, 1870. 

Mining  Industry  (by  James  D.  Hague,  with 
geological  contributions  by  Clarence  King) 
vol.  iii.  of  the  Fortieth  Parallel  Reports — 
Government  Printing  Office,  Washington, 
1870. 

"  Active  Glaciers  within  the  United  States," 
Atlantic  Monthly^  March,  187 1. 

"  On  the  Discovery  of  Actual  Glaciers  on 
the  Mountains  of  the  Pacific  Slope,"  Am. 
your.  Sci.^  3d  ser.,  vol.  i.,  p.  157,  187 1. 

"  Notes  on  Observed  Glacial  Phenomena 
and  the  Terminal  Moraine  of  the  N.  E. 
Glacier,"  Proc.  Boston  Soc.  Nat.  Hist.y  vol. 
xix.,  p.  60,  1876. 

"  Paleozoic  Subdivisions  of  the  Fortieth 
Parallel,"  Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  3d  ser.,  vol.  xi., 
p.  475,  1876. 

372 


Rossiter  W.  Raymond 

"  Notes  on  the  Uinta  and  Wahsatch 
Ranges,"  Ibid.^  p.  494. 

"  Catastrophism  and  Evolution,"  Am.  Nat.^ 
vol.  ii.,  p.  449,  1877. 

Systematic  Geology,  vol.  i.  of  the  Fortieth 
Parallel  Reports,  Government  Printing  Office, 
Washington,  1878. 

First  Annual  Report  of  the  U.  S.  Geological 
Survey,  Government  Printing  Office,  Wash- 
ington, 1880. 

"  On  the  Physical  Constants  of  Rocks,"  U. 
S.  Geol.  Survey,  3d  Ann.  Report,  p.  3,  Gov- 
ernment Printing  Office,  Washington,  1883. 

"  Style  and  the  Monument,"  North  Am. 
Review,  Nov.,  1885.  (An  article  on  the 
proposed  Grant  monument — anonymous,  but 
known  by  friends  of  Mr.  King  to  have  been 
written  by  him.) 

"Artium  Magister,"  North  Am.  Review, 
Oct.,  1888. 

"  The  Age  of  the  Earth,"  Amer.  your.  Sci- 
ence, vol.  xlv.,  Jan.,  1893. 

"  The  Helmet  of  Mambrino,"  Century,  p. 
154,  May,  1886. 

"  The  Biographers  of  Lincoln,"  Century,  p. 
861,  Oct.,  1886. 

"The  Education  of  the  Future,"  Forum, 
p.  20,  March,  1892. 


373 


Biographical  Notice 

"Shall  Cuba  be  Free?"  Forum,  p.  50, 
Sept.,  1895. 

"  Fire  and  Sword  in  Cuba,"  Forum,  p.  31, 
Sept.,  1896. 


374 


Memorabilia 

James  D.  Hague 


375 


Memorabilia 

MY  personal  acquaintance  with 
Clarence  King  began  in  1862, 
when,  at  the  age  of  twenty,  he  was 
studying  at  the  Yale  Scientific  School. 
He  was  my  junior  by  several  years 
and  we  were  not  intimately  associated 
there  as  fellow-students ;  but  I  well 
remember  him  as  he  was  then,  an 
active,  sprightly  youth,  quick  to  ob- 
serve and  apprehend,  full  of  joyous 
animation  and  lively  energy,  which 
always  made  him  a  leader  of  the  front 
rank,  whether  in  the  daily  exercises 
of  the  classroom  and  laboratory  or  in 
an  impromptu  raid  by  night  on  Hill- 
house  Avenue  front  fences,  with  the 
mischievous  purpose  of  lifting  off  and 
swapping  around  in  neighborly  ex- 
change the  door-yard  gates  of  lawns 
377 


Memorabilia 

and  gardens.  "Off  fences  must  come," 
he  sometimes  said  of  the  gates,  ''  but 
woe  unto  him  by  whom  they  come — 
if  found  out." 

In  the  following  year,  1863,  King 
left  Yale  and  went  with  his  school- 
mate, Gardiner,  to  California,  cross- 
ing the  plains  on  horseback,  with  the 
emigrant  party  referred  to  in  already 
recorded  memoirs  which  plainly  show 
how  the  important  experiences  of  this 
journey  essentially  determined  King's 
subsequent  career  and  the  character 
of  his  scientific  life-work. 

One  of  the  personally  interesting 
incidents  of  that  expedition,  hitherto 
unrecorded,  so  far  as  I  know,  which 
King,  many  years  ago,  used  to  relate 
with  thrilling  effect,  was  an  exciting 
experience  in  buffalo  hunting,  which 
occurred  not  far  from  Fort  Kearney, 
where,  hearing  of  large  herds  of  buf- 
falo in  the  vicinity,  King  determined 
to  try  his  luck  in  getting  one.  He 
378 


James  D.  Hague 

engaged  as  guide  and  companion  of 
his  sport  a  locally  well-known  hunter 
and  bought  a  superior  horse,  said  to 
have  been  especially  trained  for  buf- 
falo. They  set  out  early  one  morn- 
ing and  soon  came  up  with  a  large 
grazing  herd,  scattered  widely  over 
the  plains,  as  far  as  they  could  see. 
As  the  men  rode  in  among  them  the 
guide  told  King  to  pick  out  the  buf- 
falo of  his  choice  and  go  for  him.  A 
minute  or  two  later  King  was  in  full 
chase  of  the  best-looking  bull  in  sight, 
dashing  along,  nearly  side  by  side, 
King  with  revolver  in  hand,  ready  to 
fire  at  the  first  chance.  After  run- 
ning about  two  miles  they  descended 
into  a  shallow  basin-like  depression, 
in  the  bottom  of  which  King  fired  an 
effective  shot,  whereupon  the  bull 
made  a  stand  to  attack  the  horse  and 
rider,  who  had  by  this  time  turned 
about,  facing  the  charging  buffalo  and 
looking  back  in  the  direction  whence 

379 


Memorabilia 

they  had  come.  Just  at  this  instant 
there  appeared  in  view,  swiftly  de- 
scending into  the  depressed  arena 
which  was,  for  the  moment,  the  field 
of  action,  the  madly  pursuing  herd, 
which  had  been  stampeded,  partly  by 
King's  chase  and  partly  by  his  slowly 
following  companion.  The  sight  of 
this  so  disconcerted  King's  horse,  at 
the  critical  moment  of  attack,  that 
he  failed  to  escape  the  fatal  thrust  of 
the  wounded  and  dying  bull,  so  that 
buffalo,  horse  and  rider  went  down 
together  in  a  heap.  King  unfortun- 
ately jammed  to  the  ground  by  the 
weight  of  the  horse,  lying  on  his  leg. 
Although  suffering  from  the  severe 
physical  strain  and  in  mortal  fear  of 
being  trampled  to  death  by  the  flying 
herd,  King  remained  conscious  while, 
as  he  said,  a  mile  and  a  half  of  solid 
buffalo  galloped  past,  more  than  ever 
alarmed  and  terrified  by  what  they 
saw,  and  wildly  rushing  by  him  on 
380 


James  D.  Hague 

both  sides  of  the  narrow  field  of  bat- 
tle, crowding  and  leaping  upon  and 
over  each  other  in  their  mad  efforts 
to  get  away  from  the  visible  cause  of 
their  panic.  When  the  hunter  ar- 
rived, after  the  rush  and  danger  had 
passed,  he  found  the  bull  and  the 
horse  quite  dead  and  very  nearly  so 
poor  King,  who  was  with  difficulty 
relieved  from  his  painful  position  and 
taken  to  Kearney  for  medical  care 
and  recovery. 

It  was  after  more  than  three  years 
of  geological  campaigning  and  moun- 
taineering in  California  and  Arizona 
that  King  appeared  in  Washington, 
early  in  1867,  as  the  advocate  and 
promoter  of  his  newly  conceived  pro- 
ject, the  organization  and  conduct  of 
the  United  States  Geological  Ex- 
ploration of  the  Fortieth  Parallel.  He 
came  furnished  with  the  best  of  social 
introductions,  letters  of  scientific  com- 
mendation and  political  endorsement; 
381 


Memorabilia 

but  it  was  his  personal  charm  and 
captivating  speech  that  won  for  him 
an  immediate  and  enduring  success. 
Senators,  representatives  and  govern- 
ment officials  of  every  grade  became 
at  once  his  admiring  friends.  Fes- 
senden,  of  Maine,  after  an  evening's 
companionship  with  King  at  Sam 
Hooper's  genial  dinner- table,  was 
himself  almost  persuaded  to  be  a  sci- 
entist, and  professed  his  conversion  in 
saying,  **  If  I  were  not  United  States 
Senator  T  would  be  United  States 
Geologist."  Another  senator,  on  the 
same  occasion,  was  so  charmed  by 
King's  descriptive  powers  that  he 
confessed  a  strong  desire  to  actually 
see  with  his  own  eyes  "  those  marvel- 
ous isothermal  lines  "  which  King  had 
pictured  to  him  with  the  fascinating 
effect  of  an  Aurora  Borealis.  Con- 
ness,  of  California,  was  King's  ardent 
advocate  and  a  most  zealous  worker 
for  his  interests  in  all  matters  de- 
382 


James  D.  Hague 

manding  senatorial  action.  As  long 
as  John  Conness  remained  in  the 
Senate  he  was  a  faithful  supporter 
of  the  Fortieth  Parallel  Survey.  On 
one  occasion,  when  legislative  author- 
ity and  appropriation  of  money  be- 
came necessary  for  the  work  of  the 
Survey  and,  especially  in  the  case  re- 
ferred to,  for  the  publication  of  the 
report,  Mr.  Conness,  being  just  then 
absent  from  Washington,  on  being 
advised  that  the  then  pending  bill, 
containing  the  vitally  important  item, 
would  probably  come  up  for  action 
next  morning,  hastily  returned  by 
night  and  took  his  place  in  the  Senate 
Chamber  at  the  opening  of  the  ses- 
sion. The  attendance  of  senators 
was  very  small  when  the  measure  was 
finally  brought  to  a  vote,  fortunately, 
in  the  hands  of  a  friendly  presiding 
officer.  The  call  for  ''ayes,"  not- 
withstanding the  encouraging  voice 
of  Mr.  Conness,  was  met  with  what 
383 


Memorabilia 

seemed  like  deadly  silence  to  King, 
anxiously  watching  and  listening  in 
the  gallery.  The  call  for  '*  noes " 
passed,  happily,  with  still  less  note- 
worthy response.  "  The  ayes  seem 
to  have  it,"  said  the  presiding  officer 
tentatively  —  ''the  ayes  have  it,"  he 
continued  decisively  —  ''  't  is  a  vote," 
he  announced  in  conclusion,  and  the 
thing  was  done,  much  to  King's  relief 
and  satisfaction. 

On  another  occasion,  when  the 
maintenance  of  the  Fortieth  Parallel 
Exploration  depended  upon  the  adop- 
tion of  a  certain  amendment  in  an 
Appropriation  Bill,  then  pending  in 
the  House,  King  sought  to  engage 
the  favorable  attention  and  interest 
of  General  *'Ben"  Butler,  chairman, 
I  believe,  of  the  all-important  com- 
mittee, and  set  forth  the  character 
of  the  work  and  of  the  men  em- 
ployed in  it.  '*  Do  you  mean  to 
say  "  inquired  Butler,  "  that  there  are 
384 


James  D.  Hague 

no  regular  officers — no  West  Pointers 

—  in  this  thing?"  ''Not  one  "  said 
King.  *'  Are  you  all — all — civilians  ?  " 
Butler  insisted.  **  Every  one,"  King 
again  assured  him.  *'  Then  "  said  the 
General,  with  unquotable  emphasis, 
**  it  shall  go  through  !"  and  so  it  did. 

When  the  Secretary  of  War  handed 
King  his  letter  of  appointment,  im- 
mediately after  the  accomplishment 
of  the  first  necessary  legislation,  au- 
thorizing the  work,  he  said,  *'  Now, 
Mr.  King,  the  sooner  you  get  out  of 
Washington,  the  better — you  are  too 
young  a  man  to  be  seen  about  town 
with  this  appointment  in  your  pocket 

—  there  are  four  major-generals  who 
want  your  place." 

King's  party  was  organized  early 
in  1867  and  nearly  all  of  its  mem- 
bers left  New  York  for  California, 
via  Panama,  by  the  steamer  of  May 
I  St.  King  started  by  the  following 
ship,  unaccompanied  by  any  of  his 
385 


Memorabilia 

intimate  associates,  and  with  few,  if 
any,  companions  of  his  acquaintance. 
While  crossing  the  Isthmus  he  met 
with  an  unusual  experience  which, 
some  years  thereafter,  formed  a  part  of 
one  of  his  favorite  stories,  hitherto  un- 
recorded, so  far  as  I  know,  although 
he  sometimes  said  he  had  been  asked 
to  make  a  written  statement  of  the 
facts,  in  the  interest  of  psychical  re- 
search. As  I  now  recall  the  story  it 
so  happened  that  after  the  ship's 
passengers  had  disembarked  at  As- 
pinwall  and  had  taken  their  places 
in  the  train  for  Panama,  there  oc- 
curred a  long  delay  before  departure, 
during  which  many  of  the  travelers 
left  the  cars  and  wandered  about  the 
station  premises,  regardless  of  the 
risk  of  being  left  behind  in  the  event 
of  a  sudden  start.  Presently  the  train 
moved  without  notice,  leaving  many 
passengers  to  get  aboard  as  best  they 
might,  while  King,  standing  by  chance 
386 


James  D.  Hague 

on  the  rear  platform,  suddenly  found 
a  little  baby  in  his  arms,  placed  there 
by  its  mother,  who,  crying  aloud,  was 
already  running  as  fast  as  she  could 
in  pursuit  of  her  other  child,  a  little 
boy,  then  playing  at  the  distant  end 
of  the  platform,  so  far  away  that  the 
unhappy  and  almost  frantic  woman 
was  quite  unable  to  capture  him  and 
again  overtake  the  rapidly  moving 
train,  from  the  receding  end  of  which, 
King  could  only  wave  the  baby,  as  a 
sign  of  accepting  the  charge  thus 
suddenly  thrust  upon  him. 

This  new  responsibility  proved 
most  embarrassing.  His  unheeded 
appeals  for  assistance  met  only  with 
derision.  Much  to  his  surprise  and 
disappointment  he  found  no  one, 
man  or  woman,  among  all  his  unsym- 
pathetic fellow-passengers,  willing  to 
offer  aid  or  comfort  or  to  share,  in 
any  way,  the  duties  of  a  baby's  nurse, 
wet  or  dry.  Moreover  there  were 
387 


Memorabilia 

many  imaginable  but  unspeakable 
difficulties  to  be  dealt  with  on  arrival 
at  Panama,  a  parting  of  the  ways, 
where  King,  a  northbound  passenger 
for  California,  would  need  somehow 
to  be  rid  of  the  baby,  whose  mother, 
he  knew,  was  to  go  on  the  south- 
bound steamer  to  Peru.  He  was 
much  relieved,  after  long  suspense, 
by  the  official  announcement  that  a 
following  train  from  Aspinwall  would 
reach  Panama  a  few  hours  later, 
bringing  all  left-over  passengers,  and 
that  all  connecting  steamers  would 
await  that  arrival.  It  only  remained, 
therefore,  for  King,  while  at  Panama, 
to  find  the  ways  and  means  of  sup- 
plying the  crying  needs  of  the  baby, 
who  by  this  time  was  in  want  of 
everything  a  baby  ever  does  want. 

His  plan  was  soon  conceived  and 

promptly     carried     into     execution. 

Holding  the  baby  on  one  hand  and 

his  parasol-umbrella  in  the  other,  he 

388 


James  D.  Hague 

set  out  to  walk  the  streets  and  by- 
ways of  Panama,  seeking  some  house 
of  inviting  aspect,  with  outward  and 
visible  signs  of  babes  and  sucklings 
within,  where  he  might  get  his  baby 
washed,  dressed  and  nourished  by 
some  willing  mother.  This  intel- 
ligent scheme  was  completely  suc- 
cessful. In  a  neat  and  tidy  cabin, 
containing  a  small  family  of  English- 
speaking,  "  light-complected  "  colored 
women,  one  of  whom  was  the  health- 
ful -  looking  mother  of  a  nursing 
child.  King  quickly  found  the  whole- 
some succor  he  was  looking  for.  He 
told  his  story  to  a  sympathetic  and 
promptly  responsive  audience,  who 
immediately  took  the  baby  into 
camp,  telling  King  to  take  a  walk 
for  an  hour  or  two,  when  he  might 
return  to  find  his  charge  refreshed 
within  and  without.  When  he  came 
back  he  waited  at  the  cabin,  talking 
with  the  friendly  women,  while  the 
389 


Memorabilia 

baby  slept  until  train-time,  when, 
having  liberally  rewarded  his  hos- 
pitable benefactresses,  he  returned 
to  the  railway-station,  restored  the 
child  to  its  anxious  mother  and  went 
on  his  way  rejoicing  in  the  happy 
issue  out  of  all  his  troubles,  and  with- 
out the  smallest  expectation  of  ever 
again  seeing  any  of  the  participants 
in  the  strange  adventure. 

A  few  weeks  later.  King,  who  had, 
in  the  meantime,  fitted  out  his  ex- 
expedition  at  Sacramento,  California, 
was  moving  with  his  train  of  army 
wagons  and  mounted  scientists  across 
the  Sierra  towards  Nevada,  the  field 
of  his  first  summer's  campaign.  He 
camped  for  Sunday  near  the  little 
town  of  Alta,  on  the  western  slope 
of  the  range,  whose  curious  inhab- 
itants, mistaking  the  strange  outfit 
for  a  circus,  came  around  during  the 
day  to  inquire  when  the  show  would 
begin.  Among  these  visitors  was 
390 


James  D.  Hague 

a  mulatto-like  young  man,  large, 
strong,  well-built  and  pleasing  in 
look  and  manner,  who,  when  he  had 
heard  from  King  what  it  was,  seemed 
to  conceive  an  irresistible  desire  to 
join  the  party ;  and  his  services, 
offered  for  any  possible  duty,  were 
promptly  accepted  for  the  oppor- 
tunely created  place  of  cook's  mate. 
This  engagement  proved  to  be  the 
beginning  of  a  most  important  chap- 
ter in  the  young  man's  life. 

His  name  was  *' Jim."  According 
to  his  own  story  he  was  born  in 
Jamaica,  in  the  West  Indies.  He 
ran  away  from  home  when  he  was 
seven  years  old,  went  to  sea  as  cabin- 
boy,  continued  going  to  and  fro  in 
the  world  and  sailing  up  and  down 
in  it  until  he  landed  in  California 
and  found  his  way  to  Alta,  where 
he  was  in  service  as  a  cook  when 
favoring  fortune  brought  him  into 
King's  camp.  Since  his  first  escape 
391 


Memorabilia 

from  home  he  had  heard  nothing  of 
his  mother.  He  had  learned  some- 
how that  she  was  no  longer  living 
in  Jamaica  ;  whether  dead,  or  alive 
elsewhere,  he  did  not  know. 

Jim's  tenure  of  office  soon  became 
permanent,  outlasting  the  service  of 
all  the  other  camp-men.  When  the 
field-work  had  been  completed  he 
went  with  King  to  Washington  as 
his  personal  servant  and  office-man. 
The  Fortieth  Parallel  Exploration 
party  had  working  quarters  in  an 
otherwise  unoccupied  and  wholly  un- 
furnished house,  hired  for  the  pur- 
pose. All  members  of  the  corps 
lived  elsewhere,  excepting'  King  and 
Jim,  who  lodged  in  the  house.  Some 
of  Jim's  colored  friends  told  him 
that  the  house  was  haunted ;  and 
their  ghost  stories,  apparently  con- 
firmed by  strange  and,  for  a  time, 
unexplained  noises,  in  the  dead  of 
night,  due,  in  fact,  to  the  drying 
392 


James  D.  Hague 

of  unseasoned  wood  In  the  new  of- 
fice-tables and  large  draughting- 
boards,  which  cracked  and  split  with 
fearfully  loud  reports,  developed  in 
Jim's  unscientific  mind  an  extreme 
susceptibility  to  spiritualistic  mani- 
festations. After  some  time  the 
party  moved  to  New  Haven,  occupy- 
ing another  house,  where  King  also 
lodged  in  one  of  the  main  sleeping- 
rooms,  while  Jim's  bed  was  in  the 
attic.  One  night.  King  was  suddenly 
aroused  from  sound  sleep  by  Jim's 
precipitate  descent  of  the  attic  stairs 
and  startling  entrance  into  his  room, 
too  terrified  for  speech. 

'*  What 's  the  matter,  Jim  ?  "  King 
asked  repeatedly,  "What's  the 
matter  ?  " 

*  *  I '  ve  seen  my  mother ! "  J  im  gasped 
at  length. 

**  Nonsense!  "  said  King,  "  You  're 
dreaming,  Jim!  Go  back  to  bed!" 

But  Jim  protested  and  refused  to 

393 


Memorabilia 

go  back  to  his  attic,  under  any 
circumstances. 

**  Did  you  speak  to  her  ? "  in- 
quired King. 

"  No,  indeed  !  "  said  Jim,  *'  I  was 
too  scared  to  speak." 

"  Did  you  touch  her  ?  " 

**  I  came  down  stairs  right  through 
her — right  through  her,"  he  repeated, 
"  as  she  stood  on  the  stairs." 

When  Jim  had  regained  his  com- 
posure sufficiently,  he  lay  down  on 
the  floor  in  King's  room  and  waited 
for  morning. 

A  few  hours  later,  while  King  was 
taking  his  breakfast,  served,  as  usual, 
by  Jim,  a  telegram  arrived,  addressed 
to  King  and  signed  with  the  name 
of  a  colored  clergyman  in  San  Fran- 
cisco, well  known  to  King,  stating, 
in  effect,  that  a  certain  woman  was 
then  in  San  Francisco,  seeking  her 
long-lost  son,  James  Marryatt,  who, 
when  last   heard   from,    was   known 

394 


James  D.  Hague 

to  be  in  Mr.  King's  employ,  and 
asking  for  any  further  information 
concerning  him. 

To  this  dispatch  an  answer  was 
promptly  returned,  giving  the  desired 
information  concerning  Jim  and  say- 
ing that  he  would  start  that  evening 
for  San  Francisco,  to  see  his  mother 
there. 

It  so  happened  that  King  was  then 
preparing  and  expecting  to  go  to 
California  within  a  few  days.  On  re- 
ceipt of  the  above-mentioned  tele- 
gram, he  determined  to  send  Jim 
immediately  and  to  follow  in  person 
a  little  later.  He  accordingly  arrived 
in  San  Francisco  not  many  days  there- 
after and  went  to  his  hotel,  where  Jim 
was  his  earliest  visitor,  bringing  his 
mother  with  him.  As  she  entered 
the  room  and  met  King  face  to  face, 
recognizing  and  greeting  him  imme- 
diately with  vigorous  expressions  of 
surprise  and  pleasure,  she  exclaimed 

395 


Memorabilia 

abruptly  :  ''  Well !  I  declare  !  And 
how  's  that  baby  ?  " 

The  woman  who  had  cared  for 
King's  baby  in  her  cabin  at  Panama 
was  Jim's  mother ! 

One  very  notable  and  highly  sensa- 
tional result  of  Mr.  King's  work  on 
the  Fortieth  Parallel  Exploration,  and 
one  which  gave  him  much  fame  both 
in  this  country  and  elsewhere,  was  his 
startling  discovery  of  the  great  swindle 
in  the  **  salted "  diamond  fields  of 
Wyoming,  late  in  1872.  Early  in 
that  year  it  had  been  noised  abroad 
that  a  great  find  of  diamonds  and 
other  precious  stones  had  been  dis- 
covered somewhere  in  the  far  West, 
presumably  in  Arizona,  although  the 
precise  locality  was  most  carefully 
concealed.  A  large  number  of  the 
gems,  of  unquestionably  considerable 
value,  had  been  carried,  it  was  said, 
from  the  alleged  fields  to  San  Fran- 
cisco and  New  York,  where  the  most 
396 


James  D.  Hague 

influential  capitalists,  who  had  been 
led  to  believe  the  favorable  reports 
thus  far  presented,  had  invested  large 
sums  of  money  in  the  purchase  of 
the  ground  said  to  be  diamond-bear- 
ing, and  were  preparing  for  the  in- 
tended operation  of  the  so-called 
mines  on  a  large  scale,  which  would 
soon  have  caused  a  rush  of  fortune- 
hunters  and  adventurers  comparable 
to  the  California  immigration  in  '49 
and  '50.  Through  information  gained 
by  one  or  more  of  his  assistants,  it 
suddenly  came  to  Mr.  King's  knowl- 
edge that  the  locality  of  the  alleged 
diamond  find  was  not  in  Arizona,  but 
in  Wyoming  and  really  within  the 
region  of  his  own  field-work  of  the 
Fortieth  Parallel  survey.  Not  then 
suspecting  a  fraud,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, having  good  reason  to  regard 
as  trustworthy  the  favorable  reports 
of  the  well-known  engineer  who, 
shortly  before,  had  visited  the  fields 
397 


Memorabilia 

with  the  leading  promoters  of  the 
enterprise,  King  hastened  to  the  des- 
ignated locality,  not  with  the  ex- 
pectation of  unearthing  a  swindle, 
but  for  the  purpose  of  studying  the 
new  diamond  field,  and  making  his 
official  report  on  what  then  seemed 
to  be  a  discovery  of  great  national 
importance. 

He  set  out  promptly  with  two  or 
three  assistants,  and  duly  reached  his 
destination,  following  the  trail  with- 
out difficulty  from  Bridger,  a  station 
of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  in 
Wyoming.  He  soon  found  diamonds 
and  rubies  in  abundahce,  but  his  sus- 
picions were  quickly  aroused  by  the 
observation  that  the  plainly  visible 
precious  stones  lay  directly  upon  the 
hard  surface  of  rock,  where  Nature 
alone  could  never  have  placed  or  left 
them,  and  that  none  could  be  found 
in  the  earth  or  on  the  underlying  bed- 
rock, where,  had  the  occurrence  been 


James  D.  Hague 

genuine,  the  inevitable  laws  of  Nature 
must  have  carried  them ;  with  the 
further  observation  that  the  ant-hills, 
built  of  small  pebbles  mined  by  the 
ants,  which  were  found  to  bear  rubies 
on  their  surfaces  or  in  penetrating 
holes  (artificially  made  with  a  small 
stick),  invariably  showed  in  close 
proximity  the  storm-worn  footprints 
of  mankind,  while  other  anthills,  with- 
out such  sign  of  human  tracks  and 
not  pierced  by  any  artificial  holes, 
were  also  without  rubies  or  precious 
stones  of  any  sort.  Thorough  in- 
vestigation, following  the  lines  indi- 
cated by  these  suspicions,  soon  proved 
beyond  any  doubt  that  some  design- 
ing hand  had  ''salted"  the  ground 
with  deliberate  fraudulent  intent. 

This  disclosure  created  a  great 
sensation  in  this  country  and  in  Eu- 
rope, whence  evidence  was  soon  forth- 
coming that  the  stones  used  in  the 
salting   had    been    bought   in   large 

399 


Memorabilia 

quantities  at  London  and  Paris  dur- 
ing the  preceding  winter,  presumably 
by  the  originators  of  the  swindle. 
The  practical  result  of  Mr.  King's 
disclosure  of  the  facts  in  this  case 
was  one  of  inestimable  value,  possi- 
bly more  in  money  than  the  whole 
cost  of  the  entire  exploration  of  the 
Fortieth  Parallel  Expedition.  Had 
the  fraud  remained  undisclosed  till 
the  following  spring,  large  sums  of 
money  would  have  been  wasted  in 
the  costly  purchase  of  worthless  prop- 
erty and  in  fruitless  prospecting,  not 
only  by  capitalists,  but  by  thousands 
of  disappointed  and  ruined  fortune- 
seekers. 

The  leading  and  most  active,  even 
though  wholly  innocent,  promoter  of 
the  diamond-mining  enterprise,  by  no 
means  necessarily  a  participant  in  the 
original  swindle,  or  cognizant  of  the 
fraud  until  disclosed  by  King,  was 
an  old  and  very  well-known  Cali- 
400 


James  D.  Hague 

fornian,  one  of  the  earliest  gold- 
seekers,  and  a  lifelong  projector  and 
operator  of  mining  schemes,  whose 
name  has  ever  since  been  more  or 
less  intimately  associated  with  this 
celebrated  case  of  diamond-salting. 
It  is  a  notably  curious  coincidence 
that  these  two  men — Roberts,  who 
helped  blow  the  bubble,  and  King, 
at  whose  touch  it  vanished — should 
depart  this  life  on  the  same  day  and 
at  nearly  the  same  time,  twenty-nine 
years  after  the  events  in  which  they 
were  thus  concerned,  and  so  strangely 
related.  Within  two  or  three  hours 
after  King's  death  in  Arizona,  Roberts 
died  in  New  York  City.  Their  names 
and  their  death  announcements,  with 
obituary  notices,  stand  closely  side 
by  side  in  parallel  and  adjoining  col- 
umns of  the  Times  newspaper  of  Wed- 
nesday, Christmas  morning,  1901. 

King,  always  a  delightful  compan- 
ion,   was    especially    so    in     canjp. 

26 

401 


Memorabilia 

Everybody  missed  him  when  he 
went  away  and  was  glad  when  he 
came  back.  If  any  discontenting 
grievances,  dissensions  or  difficulties 
had  arisen  during  King's  absence, 
they  all  vanished  before  his  genial 
presence  and  cheerful  spirit  as  soon 
as  he  returned.  Many  a  scanty  meal 
has  been  made  good  cheer  by  his  en- 
couraging pleasantries.  **  What  do 
you  want  outside  of  that  ? "  he  once 
said  to  me,  in  view  of  an  avowedly 
meager  repast.  "  Nothing,"  I  re- 
plied, with  some  affectation  of  con- 
tentment, ''Nothing  —  except  my 
jacket."  ''  Good  for  you "  he  re- 
turned ;  and  seeing  that  there  was 
really  nothing  to  eat  but  beans,  he 
added,  '*  Pitch  in,  my  boy,  pitch  in  ! 
Sow  the  wind !  Reap  the  whirl- 
wind ! " 

It  was  his  mental  habit  to  touch 
with  playful  humor  almost  any  sub- 
ject, grave  or  gay,  with  which  he  had 
402 


James  D.  Hague 

to  deal.  On  one  occasion,  when  I 
had  repeatedly  written  to  him,  in  se- 
rious mood,  asking  for  a  much-needed 
remittance  of  money,  he  replied,  at 
last,  in  an  otherwise  empty  but  very 
gracious  and  amiable  letter,  briefly 
explaining  why  he  could  not  possibly 
send  the  desired  funds,  and  subscrib- 
ing himself,  in  good  faith,  **  Unremit- 
tingly yours,  C.  K." 

Many  years  ago  when  King  was  in 
the  West  and  near  a  then  very  im- 
portant mine,  in  which  some  of  his 
Eastern  friends  were  largely  inter- 
ested, he  received  from  one  of  these 
owners  a  telegram,  asking  him  to 
visit  the  mine  immediately  and  wire 
the  results  of  his  examination,  espe- 
cially with  regard  to  an  alarming 
rumor  that  the  value  of  the  vein  had 
been  much  impaired  by  finding  in  it 
a  very  large  "  horse,"  which  is  a 
miner's  term  for  a  body  of  worth- 
less rock  that  sometimes  displaces 
403 


Memorabilia 

the  ore  and  makes  a  rich  vein  poor. 
When  King  had  come  out  of  the 
mine  after  inspection  he  found  an- 
other telegram  waiting  for  him  from 
his  impatient  friend,  asking  in  effect, 
*'  Is  it  true  that  there  is  a  horse  in 
the  mine  ? "  to  which  he  promptly 
replied,  "  The  mine  is  a  perfect  livery 
stable." 

A  nervous  old  lady  once  found  him 
much  too  obliging  when,  having  en- 
tered a  crowded  railway  car,  she  was 
about  to  take  the  only  available 
vacant  seat  alongside  of  King,  but, 
having  suddenly  spied  his  gun  stand- 
ing in  the  corner,  she  walked  the 
whole  length  of  the  car,  forth  and 
back,  repeatedly,  looking  for  some 
other  seat,  and,  finding  none,  re- 
turned again  to  King's  place,  saying 
severely,  "Young  man,  is  that  gun 
loaded?"  to  which  King  instantly 
replied,  with  a  charming  smile,  his 
•eye  twinkling  with  merriment  at  the 
404 


James  D.  Hague 

thought  of  the  old  lady  going  a- 
gunning  for  somebody,  **  No,  ma'am, 
but  I  can  load  it  for  you  in  a 
minute." 

On  another  journey  from  Newport 
to  New  York  King  happened  to  en- 
ter an  ordinary  railway  car  which 
was  wholly  vacant  except  for  a  single 
passenger,  an  elderly  lady,  a  stranger 
of  interesting  and  companionable  ap- 
pearance, who  was  sitting  quite  alone 
in  one  of  the  usual  double  seats, 
much  hampered  with  bundles,  parcels 
and  a  large  bird-cage.  King,  ad- 
vancing as  though  the  car  were  full 
and  crowded,  paused  opposite  the 
seat  only  partly  occupied  by  the  lady, 
saying,  ''  Madam,  is  this  place  en- 
gaged ? "  and  on  being  assured  that 
it  was  not,  with  prompt  removal  of 
all  encumbrances,  he  took  his  seat 
there  and  thus  completed  the  jour- 
ney, in  doubtless  mutually  agreeable 
companionship. 

405 


Memorabilia 

King  possessed  unlimited  capacity 
for  adapting  himself  with  natural 
facility  to  every  sort  of  social  condi- 
tion. I  remember,  somewhat  vaguely, 
a  story,  in  effect,  that  he  was  once 
a  visitor  at  a  certain  country-house 
in  England  when  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  now  King  Edward,  was  a 
guest  there.  After  dinner,  while  the 
men  were  still  smoking,  the  host  com- 
plained of  some  indisposition,  where- 
upon the  Prince  begged  him  to  retire 
and  leave  his  guests  to  themselves 
and  their  own  resources,  saying  as- 
suringly,  '*  King  and  I  will  get  on 
well  enough  together." 

King  seemed  to  have  a  natural 
liking  for  the  African  race.  In  ear- 
liest infancy  his  nurse  was  a  colored 
woman,  an  old  family  servant,  for 
whom  he  ever  after  cherished  a  life- 
long regard  and  affectionate  sym- 
pathy. He  had  many  friends  among 
the  negro  people  and  often  sought 
406 


James  D.  Hague 

their  companionship  when  opportu- 
nity offered.  On  one  occasion,  when 
he  was  on  a  visit  in  Georgia,  during 
very  cold  weather,  he  attended  a  re- 
ligious meeting  of  a  colored  congre- 
gation, assembled  in  a  large  barn-like 
and  frigid  meeting-house,  without  any 
heating  facilities  whatever,  except- 
ing the  large  hot  stones  and  bowl- 
ders which  many  of  the  old  women 
brought  with  them,  rolled  up  in 
flannel  petticoats  or  other  comforting 
wrappers,  that  they  might  sit  or  place 
their  shivering  limbs  upon.  King 
took  an  active  part  in  the  proceedings 
and  addressed  the  meeting.  Not- 
withstanding the  bitter  cold,  which 
might  well  have  made  unquenchable 
fire  an  everlasting  pleasure,  he  much 
enjoyed  the  fervent  spirit  of  the 
prayers  and  hymns  and  soul-saving 
exhortations,  and  he  promised  the 
chattering  congregation  that,  as  soon 
as  possible,  he  would  buy  the  biggest 
407 


Memorabilia 

stove  he  could  find  in  Dahlonega, 
and  send  it  to  them  to  save  their 
bodies  from  freezing.  This  promise 
was  promptly  performed  and  a  large 
four-foot  stove,  with  ample  lengths 
of  circumflecting  stove-pipe,  sufficient 
to  carry  warmth  to  every  part  of  the 
room,  was  soon  installed  in  the  meet- 
ing-house, much  to  the  delight  of  the 
worshipers  there,  who  made  good 
use  of  their  benefactor's  gift. 

Two  or  three  years  later  King  had 
occasion  to  revisit  the  same  neigh- 
borhood. As  he  journeyed  from  the 
railway  station  to  his  destination,  a 
few  miles  distant,  he  talked  with  the 
driver  of  the  conveyance,  a  white 
man,  concerning  various  matters  of 
local  interest,  and  inquired  especially 
about  the  colored  church  and  whether 
the  stove  he  had  sent,  in  accordance 
with  his  promise,  was  still  doing 
well.  "Are  you  the  man  that  sent 
that  stove  down  here  ?  "  inquired  the 
408 


James  D.  Hague 

driver  somewhat  reproachfully.  *'  Do- 
ing well ! "  he  continued,  "  I  should 
say  so  !  There  ain't  a  fence-rail  left 
in  this  neighborhood  within  two  mile 
of  that  meetin'-house." 

King's  cheerful  spirit  remained  with 
him  to  the  end.  His  latest  remem- 
bered intelligible  words  were  spoken 
in  pleasantry  the  day  before  he  died, 
to  his  doctor,  who,  having,  shortly 
before,  given  him  a  remedy  known  as 
*'  heroin,"  which,  as  it  sometimes  does, 
caused  a  temporary  wandering  of  the 
mind,  had  said  to  King  in  explana- 
tion of  this  result,  *'  I  think  the  heroin 
must  have  gone  to  your  head."  **Very 
likely,"  King  replied,  "  many  a  heroine 
has  gone  to  a  better  head  than  mine 
is  now." 

King  possessed  an  inexhaustible 
fund  of  anecdote,  from  which  he  drew 
and  has  told  in  print  many  stories 
and  incidents  of  his  own  experiences. 
Some  skeptical  hearers  or  readers 
409 


Memorabilia 

have  occasionally  thought  he  "drew 
the  long  bow  "  in  these  stories,  which 
they  also  said  were  too  good  to  be 
true.  King,  however,  rarely  dis- 
counted the  drafts  he  drew  on  the 
credulity  of  his  audience,  just  because 
of  their  unbelief,  although,  in  one  in- 
stance, when  I  had  intimated  that  his 
story  of  the  slopes  of  Mount  Tyndall 
might  well  seem  pretty  steep  to  an 
unimaginative  reader,  he  offered  to 
throw  off  five  degrees  for  my  flat  ac- 
ceptance, or,  otherwise,  to  conduct 
me  personally  to  the  not  easily  ac- 
cessible scene  of  his  extraordinary 
adventure. 

With  his  keen  and  far-reaching  per- 
ceptive faculties  and  vivid  imagina- 
tion. King  sometimes  perceived  things 
which  others  might  see  without  per- 
ceiving or  hear  without  understand- 
ing ;  and  many  things,  the  truth  of 
which  has  been  questioned  by  the 
skeptical,  were  nevertheless  true  to 
410 


James  D.  Hague 

him  at  the  time  and  from  his  point 
of  view.  In  his  vivifying  mind  many 
a  commonplace  conception  became 
brilHant,  as  a  scrap  of  iron,  dull  and 
lifeless  in  common  air,  when  immersed 
in  oxygen,  becomes  a  coruscating  fire. 
Such  tendencies  in  thought  or  speech 
were  only  part  of  the  natural,  glowing 
enthusiasm  which  was  often  a  most 
potent  factor  in  the  accomplishment 
of  his  purposes.  "  If  you  want  to 
get  a  man  red-hot,  you  must  go  at 
him  white-hot,"  he  sometimes  said  in 
justification  of  an  apparently  exces- 
sive zeal. 

King  has  often  been  called  to  ac- 
count by  many  friends  for  neglected 
obligations  in  unanswered  letters,  un- 
kept  engagements,  broken  promises 
and  similar  offences,  concerning  which 
another  writer  has  already  said  that 
five  minutes  of  King's  personal  pres- 
ence was  enough  to  insure  complete 
forgiveness.     One  reason  why  he  left 

411 


Memorabilia 

many  letters  unanswered,  at  least 
when  in  camp,  was  because  he  left 
them  unopened,  having  many  other 
preventing  occupations,  and  he  thus 
unknowingly  neglected  due  response 
to  certain  communications  which  he 
had  not  consciously  received.  Many 
of  his  promises  and  engagements  re- 
mained unperformed  because  it  was 
a  physical  impossibility  to  keep  them. 
In  his  friendly  and  obliging  way  he 
recklessly  made  many  conflicting  and 
interfering  appointments,  which,  with- 
out the  gift  of  ubiquity,  he  could  not 
possibly  keep.  In  the  long  run,  how- 
ever, he  usually  more  than  made  up 
for  his  failures ;  and  it  may  be  truly 
said  that  if  he  could  not  always  be  as 
good  as  his  word,  he  was  almost  al- 
ways, sooner  or  later,  a  great  deal 
better.  Moreover,  he  held  a  some- 
what unusual  view  concerning  one's 
obligation  to  perform  certain  prom- 
ises, especially  marriage  engagements, 
412 


James  D.  Hague 

of  which,  in  a  somewhat  earnest  dis- 
cussion of  the  matter,  he  once  said, 
**  I  would  never  marry  a  woman  any- 
how, just  because  I  said  I  would.  That 
is  the  poorest  possible  reason  men  or 
women  can  ever  have  for  marrying 
each  other.  People  who  marry  with- 
out any  better  reason  than  that  must 
surely  come  to  grief." 

Although  King  gained  his  highest 
distinction  in  scientific  pursuits,  he 
would  undoubtedly  have  achieved 
great  eminence  in  any  other  vocation 
which  he  might  have  chosen.  He 
possessed  marvelous  intellectual  ver- 
satility, with  great  facility  in  thought 
and  rare  felicity  in  expression.  He 
excelled  especially  as  a  critic,  both  in 
literature  and  art,  and  seemed  to  be 
endowed  with  the  gift  of  genius  in 
the  aesthetic  faculty.  As  connoisseur 
he  expended  large  sums  of  money  in 
buying  objects  of  art  for  wealthy 
friends  in  America  and  England.  He 
413 


Memorabilia 

spent  a  modest  fortune  of  his  own  in 
pictures,  embroideries,  bric-k-brac  and 
beautiful  things  he  valued  more  than 
the  money  they  cost.  He  had  little 
use  for  money  except  for  what  he 
could  do  or  get  with  it.  He  could 
have  spent  millions  wisely  and  beau- 
tifully but  never  could  have  hoarded 
it.  **  Why  do  you  suppose  the  streets 
of  Heaven  are  paved  with  gold,  as 
some  say  ?  "  I  once  asked  him.  **  Just 
to  show  how  little  they  think  of  it 
there,"  he  replied. 

His  charming  personality,  his  noble 
and  gentle  spirit,  his  great  kindness, 
generosity  and  constant  friendship, 
have  left  a  precious  memory,  which 
will  long  be  cherished  by  many  of  all 
sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  both  in 
the  very  highest  and  the  very  hum- 
blest walks  of  life,  who  will  mourn  for 
him  sincerely  as  one  upon  whose  like 
they  may  never  look  again. 


414 


it 


n 

c 


Oc; 


Synoptic  Index. 


PAGE 

King  Memorial  Committee iv 

King's  letter  to  Cutter  accompanying  the  gift  of 

the  Helmet  of  Mambrino 3 

Ramble  in  Golden  Gate  Park 5 

Journey  in  La  Mancha 8 

Early  morning  in  the  posada ,  9 

Salazar,  guide  and  companion 12 

The  posadera 17 

Morning  chocolate 17 

A  Spanish  town 19 

The  '''' Barberia''^ 23 

The  widow  Barrilera 24 

The  barber's  basin .     .  27 

The  widow's  son  "  Crisanto  " 28 

Certificate  of  the  ayuntamiento 30 

The  Secretario 31 

The  Secretary's  valued  relic 34 

"Don  Horacio" 43 

A  phenomenal  American 47 

The  children  of  Yakoob  Beg .  49 

An  exchange  of  gifts  with  H.  I.  M.  the  Tenno  of 

Japan 53 

Kindness  of  the  natives  of  Tanegashima  to  the 

survivors  of  the  Cash?nere 54 

Act  of  recognition  by  the  U.  S.  Government  .     .  55 

Japanese  schoolhouses  built  in  commemoration   .  55 
"  Decoration  of  Merits  with  Blue  Ribbon"  con- 
ferred by  Japanese  Government  upon  Horace 

F.  Cutter 56 

Relations  with  Spain 57 

Correspondence  with  Castelar 57 

Gibraltar  to  be  captured  by  bombs  dropped  from 

balloons 58 

The  sunken  treasure  galleons  in  the  bay  of  Vigo  58 

417 


Synoptic  Index 


PAGH 

International  Exhibition  at  Madrid 59 

The  attitude  of  Portugal 59 

Relations  with  Russia 59 

British  Columbia 60 

Drake  Monument 60 

Lower  California 61 

Japanese  colonists  to  cultivate  cotton  in  Mexico 

for  international  capitalists 62 

The  South  Seas 62 

Spelling-books  for  primary  schools  in  the  Philip- 
pines       62 

Jury  law  reforms 63 

San  Francisco  Vigilance  Committee 63 

Golden  Gate  Park 63 

The  aviary 63 

Japanese  bulbuls 64 

Birds,  fish,  and  the  larger  animals 64 

North  Beach  water-lots 65 

A  literary  hoax 65 

*'  Though  lost  to  sight,  to  memory  dear"  ...  65 

*' Sweetheart,  goodbye  !  the  fluttering  sail"    .     .  67 

-•'  Ruthven  Jenkyns  " 68 

'Greenwich  Magazine  for  Marines 68 

Publication  in  London  of  the  bogus  song   ...  69 

A  fictitious  ancestral  relative 69 

*'  Susan  Coolidge,"  a  fictitious  chief  mourner  .     .  70 

*' i7'<?rw2V  of  Mambrino" 71 

Necessities  and  eccentricities 71 

A  constructive  loss  of  $400,000 72 

King's  loss  of  a  contingent  legacy 72 

A  fortune  saved  from  loss 73 

Don  Horacio's  usual  dress 74 

His  high  hat  in  a  railway  wreck 77 

His  strange  meeting  with  a  participant  in  the 
"wonderful  ghost-story"   of  All   the    Year 

Round 78 

Story  of  Alvah  Clark  and  "  Zeta  Cancri  "...  81 

Letters  of  Edward  Everett  Hale 82 

Letter  from  the  London  Times  correspondent  in 

China  (i88i) 84 

Autographic  letter  of  Emilio  Castelar    ....  85 

Letters  from  Clarence  King 86 

418 


Synoptic  Index 


PAGE 

Note  introducing  Mr.  Thomas  Sturgis  ....  92 

Note  addressed  to  Mr.  W.  D.  Howells      ...  94 

Note  addressed  to  Mr.  John  Hay 95 

Socrates  or  Don  Quixote  ? 95 

The  Helmet   of    Mambrino,   the  most   precious 

treasure  of  Don  Horacio 97 

His  last  illness 97 

Final  resting-place  of   * '  The   Bachelor  of   San 

Francisco " 98 

Search  for  the  helmet  which  vanished  after  Don 

Horacio's  death 99 

An  advertisement 102 

Supposed  discovery  of  the  helmet  at  the  pawn- 
brokers       103 

Its  purchase  for  seven  dollars 104 

A  sympathetic  detective 104 

His  bill  of  sale  and  services 105 

Subsequent  investigation     ........  108 

The  pawnbroker's  statement 109 

Mordecai  Benguiat's  story no 

A  copper  basin  from  Smyrna in 

A  mistaken  identification 114 

"The  Helmet  OF  SoMBRiNo" 115 

Memoir  by  John  Hay 117 

King's  genial  nature 119 

His  facility  in  acquiring  command  of  languages  .  123 

His  universal  sympathy 125 

His  place  in  science 125 

What  he  might  have  been  in  literature  .     .     .     .  126 

His  eye  for  art 127 

Visit  to  Gustave  Dore 129 

Visit  to  Ruskin 129 

His  intellectual  versatility 130 

His  power  of  diffusing  happiness 131 

Only  one  King 132 

Memoir  by  William  D.  Howells 133 

Varied  impressions  of  King 135 

His  sunny  gayety 135 

First  meeting  in  proof-reader's  room  of  the  Uni- 
versity Press  at  Cambridge,  about  1869    .     .  136 

419 


Synoptic  Index 


PAGE 

His  "  Mountaineering  "  papers 138 

At  the  White  House,  Washington 141 

His  indifference  to  literary  repute 141 

Meeting  in  London 142 

A  Fortuny  watercolor 145 

King's  princely  generosity 146 

His  frank  bonhomie 148 

Meeting  in  Boston  Common 149 

Voting  for  Blaine 149 

King's  characteristic  smile,  delicately  intimated 

in  his  portrait  by  George  Howland      .     .     .  150 

Sympathetic  anti-obesity  hopes 150 

Pleasures  of  the  table 151 

A  noteworthy  beefsteak  and  sauce  at  a  dinner  in 

New  York 151 

King's  friendly  sympathies 152 

King's  work  in  American  literature 153 

Memoir  by  Henry  Adams 157 

"  How  I  first  knew  King  " 159 

His  bubbling  life  and  energy 159 

His  charming  companionship 160 

Our  last  vacation 161 

King's  letter  from  Bloomingdale 162 

At  Havana 165 

At  Santiago 166 

His  love  of  paradox — the  only  excuse  for  thought  167 

Dos  Bocas — a  dream  of  Paradise 169 

Paradoxical  geology 171 

The  archaic  female 172 

Rebellion  and  brigandage 173 

A  critical  situation 174 

Fate  of  a  bandit-friend 177 

Cuban  rebellion 180 

King's  letter  proposing  trip  to  Mexico  .     .     .     .  183 

The  best  companion  in  the  world 185 

Memoir  by  John  LaFarge 187 

A  fancied  resemblance  between  King  and  Dante 

Gabriel  Rossetti 189. 

King's  artistic  temperament 190 

His  acquaintance  with  Ruskin 191 

420 


Synoptic  Index 


PAGE 

His  collection  of  paintings  and  beautiful  things  .  192 

His  artistic  conception  of  a  dream-building    .     .  193 

Project  for  the  tomb  of  General  Grant  ....  194 

His  picturesque  and  charming  stories     ....  196 
A  vanishing  mirage  of  fortune  for  the  benefit  of 

art  and  artists 196 

Memoir  by  Edmund  Clarence  Stedman      .     .     .  199 

King  a  kind  of  Martian  visitor 201 

An  eventful  episode  in  his  life 202 

A  transatlantic  voyage 202 

An  overnight  philosopher 203 

An  incessant  frolic 204 

A  sporting  wager 206 

A  Derby  day  at  Epsom 206 

King's  quest  of  spolia  opima 208 

His  matchless  style  and  translucent  English    .     .  208 
His   speech   and  writ   iridescent  with   romantic 

imagination 209 

A  loss  to  literature 209 

A  place  in  history 209 

King's  memory  enshrined 210 

Memoir  by  William  Crary  Brownell       .     .     .     .  211 

King  at  the  Century  Club 213 

An  ideal  clubman  in  harmonious  environment     .  215 

His  intellectual  alertness 216 

His  capacity  for  conversation 218 

His  love  of  paradox 219 

His  extraordinary  mental  activity 222 

His  dominating  imagination,  a  constant  factor  in 
scientific   achievement   and  in   the    field   of 

letters 223 

Mountaineering  in  the  Sierra  Nevada,  a  work  of 

imagination  of  a  very  high  order     ....  224 

Memoir  by  Edward  Cary 227 

King's  school  and  college  days 229 

Crossing  the  plains  with  Gardiner  in  1863  .     .     .  229 

Service  on  the  Geological  Survey  of  California    .  230 
Undertaking    of    the   Fortieth    Parallel   Survey 

(i866) 231 

421 


Synoptic  Index 


PAGE 

Completion  of  this  work  in  1872 231 

Organization   of   the   United   States   Geological 

Survey  in  1878 232 

Subsequent  activities  in  scientific  work  ....  232 

His  study  of  the  physics  of  the  Earth    ....  233 

His  literary  work 234 

The   Century   Club — "the  rag,  tag  and  bobtail 

of  all  there  is  best  in  our  country  "...  234 

King's  matchless  talk 235 

His  intense  imagination 236 

His  brilliant  nature 236 

His  unfailing  kindness 236 

Edward  Gary's  review  of  King's  Mountaineering 

in  the  Sierra  Nevada 237 

Sketches,  fourteen  in  number,  originally  published 

in  Atlantic  Monthly  about  1 869       ....  239 
Four  editions  of  the  book  brought  out  by  James 

R.  Osgood  &  Co.,  previous  to  1874     .     .     .  239 

His  earliest  crossing  of  the  continent     ....  239 

A  succinct  statement  of  geologic  history     .     .     .  241 
An  intellectual  effect  akin  to  that  given  by  certain 
passages  of  Shakespeare  in  the  expression  of 

human  consciousness 243 

View  from  the  top  of  Mount  Whitney    ....  246 

King's  charming  narrative  of  personal  adventure  .  250 

"  Kaweah's  Run  " 251 

The  Newtys  of  Pike 251 

The  artist  of  Cut-off  Copples's 251 

An  American  classic 251 

Memoir  by  Samuel  Franklin  Emmons  ....  253 

Clarence  King — Geologist 255 

King's  ancestry 256 

His  father's  death  in  China  (1848) 258 

His  mother  a  widow  at  twenty-two 258 

King's  boyhood  days  at  Newport  and  Hartford  .  259 

At  the  Yale  Scientific  School  (1859) 259 

Subsequent  studies  in  science  and  art  1862-63     •  260 
Journey  across  the  continent  in  company  with  his 

friend  James  T.  Gardiner 261 

Burnt  out  at  Virginia  City 262 

422 


Synoptic  Index 


PAGB 

Crossing  the  Sierra  Nevada  afoot 262 

Meeting  with   Professor  William    H.  Brewer  of 

the  Geological  Survey  of  California     .     .     .     262 

King's  work  on  that  Survey 263 

Exploration   in  Arizona,  accompanying  General 

McDowell 263 

Field  studies  a^-ound  extinct  volcanoes  in  associa- 
tion with  Baron  von  Richthofen      ....     264 
King's  important  discovery  of  significant  fossils 

on  the  Mariposa  estate  (1863) 264 

Initiative  efforts  at  Washington  to  organize  the 
Geological  Exploration  of  the  Fortieth  Par- 
allel, 1866-67      .....     265 

Conduct  of  that  Survey 266 

Mining  Industry^  the  earliest  publication  of  the 

Report  (1870) 268 

Subsequent  publications 269 

Glaciers  on  Mount  Shasta 269 

Islands  along  southern  coast  of  New  England     .     269 

Systematic  Geology  (1878) 271 

Establishment  of  the  United  States  Geological 

Survey 273 

King's  work  as  United  States  Geologist     .     .     ,     275 

Fellowship  in  scientific  societies 276 

Geological  Society  of  London  (1874)  ....  276 
National  Academy  of  Sciences  (1876)  ....  276 
American  Institute  Mining  Engineers    ....     276 

King's  financial  affairs 277 

Time  and  attention  which  he  might  otherwise 
have  given  to  science  and  literature  absorbed 

by  necessity  of  earning  money 278 

His  quick  perception  and  acute  judgment  illus- 
trated  in   his   discovery   of   the    "diamond 

swindle "    ., 278 

Service  as  scientific  adviser  in  important  mining 

litigations 279 

Honorary  degree  of  LL.D.  conferred  by  Brown 

University  (1890) 281 

King's  scientific  writings  discussed 281 

"  Catastrophism  and  the  Evolution  of  Environ- 
ment"   282 

Systematic  Geology 283 

423 


Synoptic  Index 


PAGE 

His  establishment  of  a  physical  laboratory  for  in- 
vestigations conducted  by  Professors  Barus 

and  Hallock 287 

His  paper  on  the  "  Age  of  the  Earth  "  .     .     .     .  289- 

His  estimate  confirmed  by  Lord  Kelvin     .     .     .  290 

King's  literary  work ....  291 

His  remarkable  intellectual  versatility  ....  292 

His  last  illness 293 

Memoir  by  Daniel  C.  Gilman 295 

Clarence  King's  boyhood  at  New  Haven    .     .     .  297 

School-days  at  Hartford 297 

At  the  Sheffield  School 298 

His  graduation  there  in  1862 299 

His  subsequent  career 300 

Biographical  Notice  by  Rossiter  W.  Raymond    .  303 

Clarence  King  a  "  mother's  boy  " 306 

His  schoolboy  days 306 

"  The  gift  of  friendship,"  a  characteristic  from  his 

earliest  youth 306 

James    T.    Gardiner's   note   descriptive   of    that 

period 3^7 

King's  crossing  of  the  continent  in  1863,  suggestive 

of  General  Sherman's  experience     ....  308 
Letter  of  Professor  Brewer — quoted       ....  310 
His  meeting  with  King  and  Gardiner  on  Sacra- 
mento River  steamer    311 

Brewer's  first  ascent  of  Mount  Shasta    ....  314 

His  descriptive  letter  to  Professor  Brush    .     .     .  315 

King's  resolution  inspired  thereby 315 

King's 'engagement  on  the  Geological  Survey  of 

California 316 

His  literary  camp  outfit  (footnote) 317 

Ascent  of  Lassen  Peak 318 

'Kmg's  glissade 3^9 

Discovery  of  Jurassic  and  Triassic  fossils  in  the 
auriferous    zone    of    California    at    Genesee 

Valley,  Plumas  County 321 

King's  discovery  of  glaciers  on  Mount  Shasta  in 

1870 323 

Mount  Whitney 324 

424 


Synoptic  Index 


PAGE 

King's  ascent  of  mistaken  peak  in  1871      .     .     .  325 
Mr.  W.  A.  Goodyear's  discovery  of  King's  mis- 
take (1873) 326 

King's  hasty  journey  from  New  York  and  ascent 

of  the  true  Mount  Whitney 327 

Discovery  on  Mariposa  estate  of  Jurassic  fossils  .  327 

Question  of  priority  in  this  discovery     ....  328 
King's  scientific  errand  to  Arizona  with  General 

McDowell 330 

An  adventure  with  Apaches 331 

Reminiscences  contributed  by  James  T.  Gardiner, 
touching  the  considerations  which  led  to  the 

undertaking  of  the  Fortieth  Parallel  Survey  332 

Field  work  of  the  Survey 335 

King's  courage  and  nerve  under  trying  circum- 
stances    338 

Capture  of  a  deserting  soldier 339 

Close  quarters  with  a  grizzly 340 

An  elk's  resemblance  to  "  a  first-class  hat-rack  on 

a  mule " 344 

A  dinner  in  camp  with  King 344 

"  Roughing  it "  in  soft  raiment 345 

A  valet's  view  of  the  Grand  Canon  of  the  Colo- 
rado, "  no  place  for  a  gentleman  "  .     .     .     .  347 
King's  valet  mistaken  in  Paris   for  an  Oriental 

Prince  (footnote) 348 

The  diamond  swindle 349 

King's  work  as  Director  of  the  U.  S.  Geological 

Survey 350 

King's  contributions  to  scientific  literature      .     .  352 

His  "  Mountaineering  in  the  Sierra  Nevada  "      .  353 
King's  many  social  and  professional  engagements 

a  hindrance  to  literary  activity 354 

His  Mexican  enterprises 359 

An  expert  witness  in  mining  litigations  .     .     .     .  359 

Travels  in  Europe 362 

Visit  in  Cuba 363 

His  final  illness 364 

King's  constancy  in  friendship 367 

His  "  Sunday  School"  in  London 369 

His  "afternoon  tea"  in  Windsor  Park  by  royal 

favor 369 

425 


Synoptic  Index 


PAGE 

King's  impressive  personality 370 

List  of  published  works  by  Clarence  King      .     .  372 

Memorabilia,  James  D.  Hague 375 

King  at  Yale  in  1862 377 

Hillhouse  Avenue  garden  gates 377 

Crossing  the  plains  (1863) 378 

Buffalo  hunting 378 

At  Washington  (1867) 381 

Senator   Fessenden   almost  persuaded    to   be   a 

scientist 382 

Some  marvellous  isothermal  lines 382 

Senator   Conness,    a   faithful    supporter   of   the 

Fortieth  Parallel  Survey 383 

General  Butler's  pro-civilian  sympathies     .     .     .  384 
Secretary  of  War's  admonition  to  King  to  get  out 

of  Washington  without  delay 385 

King's  departure  for  California  (1867)    ....  385 
An    unusual    experience    with    a    baby   on    the 

isthmus 386 

A  Sunday  camp  at  Alta 390 

Engagement  of  "Jim"  as  cook's  mate  ....  391 

A  case  for  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research      .  393 

The  diamond  swindle 396 

A  strange  coincidence  in  the  simultaneous  death 

of  Roberts  and  King 401 

King  in  camp — a  delightful  companion      .     .     .  401 

A  feast  of  beans 402 

"  Unremittingly  yours" 403 

' '  A  horse  in  the  mine  " 404 

"  Young  man,  is  that  gun  loaded  ?  "       ....  404 
A  companionable  stranger  in  an  otherwise  vacant 

car 405 

The  Prince  of  Wales  and  King  in  agreeable  com- 
panionship     .     .          406 

King's  gift  of  a  stove  to  a  colored  church  in 

Georgia 407 

King's  cheerful  spirit  at  the  last 409 

King's  alleged  tendencies  to  exaggeration  .     .     .  410 

His  natural  glowing  enthusiasm 411 

"  To  get  a  man  red-hot,  you  must  go  at  him 

white-hot" 4" 

426 


Synoptic  Index 


PAGE 

King's  unanswered  letters  and  neglected  engage- 
ments more  than  atoned  for 41 1 

His  unusual  view  of  marriage  engagements     .     .412 
King's   love   of    beautiful    things    more   valuable 

than  money 414 

Why  the  streets  of  heaven  are  paved  with  gold    .     414 
A  cherished  memory 4^4 


427 


MOUNTAINEERING  IN  THE 
SIERRA  NEVADA, 

A  new  edition  of  this  book  has  recently  been 
published  by  Messrs.  Charles  Scribner's  SonSy 
^53  Fifth  Aveftue^  New  York. 


429 


•w^ 


iA-^'fMJ 


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ARE  SUBJECT  TO   IMMEDIATE   RECALL 


LIBRARY,   UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  DAVIS 

Book  Slip-Series  458 


219831; 


Century  association, 
New  York.  King  memoria. 


C  fnt  vr\J 


P  lYSlCAl 
SCIENCES 
1 iBRARY 


Call  Number: 


31    2882 


QE22 

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C5 


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DAVIS 


219834 


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